In the US, I’ve heard that countries like the USSR and North Korea prevent citizens from leaving. Is this propaganda or do AES countries tend to prevent more people leaving than others?
In the US, I’ve heard that countries like the USSR and North Korea prevent citizens from leaving. Is this propaganda or do AES countries tend to prevent more people leaving than others?
This is not quite the same since it is not about freedom of movement but instead about economic control, but is an interesting comparison: the US charges its citizens income tax even when they are not resident in the US, and it is the only country that does this, IIRC.
If you leave the US and immigrate elsewhere, the only way to stop paying for the US’s militaristic imperialism is to renounce your citizenship.
The US impoverishes other countries and entices economic refugees to come to America where they are used as cheap labor. To make matters worse, highly educated immigrants are given special treatment, causing brain drain in the periphery. As a cherry on top, the US under-educates its population and keeps them monolingual so emigrating becomes much harder. And then of course they double tax people and make renouncing citizenship expensive, but I’m pretty sure you have to make over $103,900 for that to apply. If America’s parasitic relationship to other countries was ended, not only would it face demographic collapse like all other developed market economies, but it would also become much less relevant in the realm of R&D.
I’m still for freedom of movement and immigration out of principle, but it should be paired with reparations to undo the unequal development of the world.
you have to pay at least a $2530 fee to renounce US citizenship, if you somehow avoid all of the other hidden fees. and Allah help you if you mess up part of the application. cool country 👍
edit: i conclude it’s probably easier to lose citizenship by committing treason or joining a foreign military than doing the state department’s arcane (and expensive) rituals
I have not lived in the US for most of my adult life, and have been in the process of renouncing for a while now, as I need to to get my new citizenship.
I was interrupted by covid, because they just decided to not let anyone renounce during that time period, so I have started my application process over. You’re lucky if you only get the couple thousand charge, because the chances are very high that they will find some tax that you didn’t pay you suddenly owe now.
Honestly, paying income tax to the US for the rest of my life is probably the easier route. At least most people get it all returned.