WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has slashed by about 80% the fee for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship.
After years of legal battles with several groups representing Americans wanting to give up their citizenship, the department on Friday published a final rule in the Federal Register that reduces the cost from $2,350 to $450.
The new fee, which took effect on Friday, had been promised in 2023 but had never been implemented. The cost is now the same as it was when the State Department first started charging Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.
Renouncing U.S. citizenship can be an intensive and lengthy process. Applicants must repeatedly confirm in multiple written and verbal attestations to a State Department consular officer that they understand the implications of the step before being allowed to take a formal oath of renunciation. It must then be reviewed by the department.
The fee was raised from $450 to $2,350 in 2015 to cover the administrative expenses as the number of people wanting to renounce their citizenship surged in part due to new U.S. tax reporting requirements for American expatriates that angered many.
That dramatic fee increase drew significant opposition from groups such as the France-based Association of Accidental Americans, which represents people mainly living abroad whose U.S. citizenship is due purely to their having been born in the United States.
The association filed several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the fee, including one that remains pending that argues there should be no cost at all for renouncing one’s citizenship.
“The Association of Accidental Americans welcomes this decision, which acknowledges the necessity of making this fundamental right accessible to all,” its president, Fabien Lehagre, said in a statement. “This victory is the direct result of six years of relentless legal action and advocacy.”
In court, the association said since the 2023 announcement that the fee would be reduced at least 8,755 Americans had paid the full $2,350 to renounce their citizenship. The State Department did not provide numbers for the total number of Americans who have renounced their citizenship.
This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the association's president. It is Lehagre, not Lahagre.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a working lunch at the Shield of the Americas Summit, Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Trump National Doral Miami in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews has a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and will miss the rest of the NHL season.
The team provided an injury update Friday night, a little under 24 hours since Matthews was knocked out of a game against Anaheim on a knee-on-knee hit from Radko Gudas.
The Leafs said Matthews has a Grade 3 MCL tear and a bruised quadriceps muscle and would be evaluated again in two weeks. Gudas is facing up to a five-game suspension for kneeing.
Gudas was given a major penalty and ejected.
“Dirty play,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said Thursday night. “League’s going to obviously look at it and see what the suspension will be or whatever happens.”
Trying to make a move around Gudas in the slot in the second period of Toronto’s 6-4 victory, Matthews stook a direct blow to his left leg and crashed to the ice. The U.S. Olympic captain stayed down before being helped to the locker room.
Gudas is the bruising Czech defender who ended Canadian captain Sidney Crosby’s Olympics in the quarterfinals with a hit.
“He’s done a few of those before in his career,” Toronto winger Matthew Knies said.
Gudas was asked following Anaheim’s morning skate about trying to contain Matthews.
“We go to be on top of him,” Gudas said. “We got to make sure that he doesn’t get space in the middle of the ice … make his night’s not enjoyable.”
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville defended his player.
“There’s no premeditation,” Quenneville said. “Reflexes did it.”
Matthews snapped a 12-game goal drought earlier in the period on a power play. He had 27 goals and 26 assists in 60 games this season.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews, center, is helped off the ice after being injured by Anaheim Ducks Radko Gudas during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews (34) and Anaheim Ducks Radko Gudas (7) lay on the ice after colliding during second period NHL hockey action in Toronto on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews (34) is helped off the ice after being injured by Anaheim Ducks Radko Gudas during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews, left, is injured by Anaheim Ducks Radko Gudas during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews (34) is injured by Anaheim Ducks Radko Gudas (7) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
