State Department slashes fee to renounce US citizenship by 80% to $450

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, effective April 13, 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 reflect that the reduced fees are effective on April 13, not March 13.

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)

A UPS cargo plane had to abort its landing in Louisville earlier this week when a small plane crossed the runway just as it approached.

The air traffic controller yelled “Skylab 25, stop!” at the small plane before quickly ordering the UPS plane to pull up and perform a maneuver called a go-around to avert another tragedy at Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport, which is a major hub for UPS. The audio was posted online by www.LiveATC.net.

Just last November, a UPS plane crashed after an engine fell off as it was rolling down the runway to take off. The National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday that it plans to hold two days of investigative hearings starting May 19 to learn more about why the crash that killed 14 people happened.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in this latest incident, which happened about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday.

Right after the cargo plane safely pulled up, the controller asked “Skylab 25, what are you doing?”

The pilot responded “Skylab 25, yeah, sorry about that.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

UPS said in a statement that its pilot followed standard procedures to perform a go-around and there was no impact on the package delivery giant's operations.

Close calls like this happen somewhere frequently. Just last week, a Frontier Airlines jet nearly collided with two trucks that crossed in front of it as it was taxiing at slow speeds at Los Angeles International Airport. In a separate incident earlier this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, an American Airlines pilot told the tower he had to slam on the brakes when a truck crossed in front of him on a taxiway.

Last month, an Air Canada plane landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York smashed into a fire truck that had been cleared to cross the runway less than 20 seconds earlier. Both pilots were killed and dozens were injured in that crash.

FILE - UPS jets are parked at the Worldport package sorting complex at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)