ב' לחודש השנים עשר ב' תשע"ד
Well, after toying with the idea of renouncing my U. S. citizenship, I have made the decision to go through with renunciation. The truth is that I had already thought this through thoroughly. I had been thinking of renunciation as far back as 2001.
Eventually, I will put all of the various parts to the documenting of this journey of mine together into a Renunciation of U. S. Citizenship Guide for Israeli Dual Citizens. But, for now, I will post the stages of my process in parts.
You can go straight to the following link to make an appointment with:
After reading this page, decide how you want contact the Consulate for your appointment. I clicked at the bottom to view available appointment dates and times. I then chose one, and it took me about a minute to complete the online form.
By the way, there was a note suggesting reports of difficulties using Firefox to complete an appointment request. So, using a different web browser was recommended.
Click on "Request notarial and other services not listed above," and that you read and understood, then click "continue."
Make sure you have your U. S. Passport number and a valid e-mail address. The form did not allow the request to go through without an e-mail address.
Your appointment sheet should look like this. Print it out, because it needs to be brought with you.
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| U. S. Consulate, Jerusalem, Appointment Sheet Grayed out areas = personal details and passwords (Click to enlarge) |
I must say that I am a bit nervous, but the good kind of nervous,...and excited, all at once.
I am mostly concerned about being interrogated, so to speak, and that I will be sent home for a "cooling-off period," which I have heard can happen.
The number of U. S. citizens renouncing their citizenship has been growing dramatically. I intend to add one more to the number, with my own renunciation.
I simply intend to tell them the truth as to why I want to renounce, and then hold my ground. I am prepared to accept a second, required visit. But, I am also prepared to do everything I can to avoid this. After all, I have to miss work for this process.
I will update you on ט' אדר ב'/March 11, after my appointment, and will include the forms I was required to complete, and the details of my "interview."
So, stay tuned!
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Toying with the Idea of Renouncing My U. S. Citizenship
13 comments:
Yasher koach!
e-mail JerusalemACS@state.gov . They like to do them in the afternoon outside regular hours and may make you come back a if you show up in the morning.
My family and I relinquished a few months ago making the loss of our US citizenship effective the day we landed in Israel. Different process than renouncing. We came to Eretz Israel to be only Israeli and with no fall back plan. We are nine years in Eretz Israel and never happier to ONLY ISRAELI in the land of the G-d of Israel.
We dislike the bullying of Israel by the US and it's hollow claims to be our (fair weather) friend and supporter. It's a conflict of moral principles to hold both citizenships in my eyes.
We went to the Tel Aviv Embassy. The process was totally stress free, we were not asked questions about our motivation or intimidated in anyway. It was a cordial and businesslike process that went very smoothly.
Thanks, everyone for your feedback, and for the helpful information.
I just emailed the Consulate and to an additional official's e-mail address, expressing willingness to arrive at a different time for my renunciation.
Such a step is not in the cards for us. We have closd family in the states and would rather keep a USA passport than hassle with visas. Also I believe that American policy towards Israel would improve if our government would just tell the USA to stop.
Batya, With the likes of Carl Levin and others in congress pressing their 3rd attempt to revoke the $95,000 dollar foreign earned income credit, Jews in Israel will soon be paying full income tax on their incomes to both countries. The US is in desperate straits, and You and the rest of US have been painted in the media as rich tax dodgers who deserve no mercy.
Many other "reforms" are in the works, as evidenced by the rate of change in rules for expatriation over the last few years.
There is no reason to blindly hope that US policy towards Israel will improve. Kerry and Obama make threats every day towards Israel. The history of the US towards Israel is to look the other way when Israel needs help most. No help came when we had the wars of 1948, 1967 and 1973 we were left to what many assumed would be our destruction. Now that the world is being convinced by the cowering of our leaders in accepting our labeling as an apartheid state with no right to our own lands, how much help can we expect in the future?
B"H - Author and all you "yasher koach" commentators, evidently you associate Jewish content and meaning and value to the State of Israel, something I consider a fundamental error. A distinction to be made between the Land, the Torah, the People, ultimately the G-d of Israel and the State. The first four are holy, the last one only according to the K(r)ookist, Zionist usurpers. The States does not destroy shuls, housing and business because they are Jewish, does not use its army to beat up and pepper-spray people because they are Jewish, it doesn't want to force-enslave its Haredim because they are Haredim and so on. Of course you are free to choose the citizenship you want, and I'm not here to defend the US or any of its presidents or secretaries of state, etc., I'm just writing to point out that Israeli citizenship doesn't make anyone any more - Jewish.
you will be joining the ranks of Naftali Bennett and Rav Dov Lipman.
Ariel, I think that when I reveal more about the reasons for renunciation, you may see my point.
I agree that Israeli citizenship does not make one more Jewish.
Yitzi, Good points. You're right in so many ways. But, lay off Batya. She's good people. :-)
Nature Guide,
Tee-Hee. ;-)
Ariel, my connection to the modern state of Israel is less a factor than my connection to living in the land of Israel and divesting myself of the trappings of galuth. Perhaps the greatest of those trappings is to remain a citizen of a nation (like Mitzrayim, Spain, Germany looking back at the good old days) of goyim who is driving the modern state of Israel into a corner to fight for the very survival of the Jewish people (once again) in the land that G-d gave to us.
There is no retreat from our presence in the land of Israel and certainly no option to leave Israel to return to the land of the formerly free. We can easily see from the events of recent history that we are in the times the prophets spoke of and the days of mashiach are near.
Our role in Israel is not to blindly worship the current secular government but to improve, perfect and make our land a land fit for Torah we are not to just sit and wait for mashiach to do miracles. We are to plant, build, fight, and yes even politic for the land of Jewish Israel as G-d intended.
Batya, I'm sorry if I came off as too strong in my response to your comment. It certainly was not meant to be directed to you personally. My intent in using your name was to identify the school of thought so common among our people about our relationship with the USA.
I find the default Jewish position vis a vis the USA similar to that of the Jews in the time of the declining Roman Empire and it's domination of our land.
Some believe we are currently aligned with a super power that looks out for us while others see the relationship as more one of a waning empire throwing Israel under the bus to stave off the barbarians at the gate.
So in summary please accept my apologies if I did seem to be too direct and personal.
Yitzi, thanks for your comments.
Very well stated on all counts.
The new policy in the states re: foreigners concerns those who request money from the USA. We don't. I consider our passports to be permanent renewable visas.
And again, for the gazillionth time, our problems are due to bad Israeli policy. Americans always end up kowtowing to or shirking from those who tell them off.
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