The United States State Department has increased the processing fee for relinquishing United States Citizenship or Permanent Residence through means other than explicit renunciation to 2350 United States dollars from 450 United States dollars (archived). The change brings the fee in line with that for having the State Department acknowledge an explicit renunciation of citizenship even though a number of the acts leading to the relinquishment of citizenship create a loss of United States nationality even without a Certificate acknowledging the loss of nationality from the State Department. A few acts that until recently allowed one to certify their loss of United States nationality at a discount include:

obtaining naturalization in a foreign state in an application after the age of 18; the taking of an oath, affirmation, or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state after the age of 18; entering or serving in the armed forces of a foreign state; or accepting employment with a foreign government after the age of 18.

Now that the fees for obtaining a Certificate of Loss of Nationality are harmonized it can be expected for the current trend of the regular increases of these fees to now happen synchronously so there likely will not be many windows as there have been in the past for potential United States expatriates to get a discounted Certificate of Loss of Nationality by choosing relinquishment over renunciation. Qntra has previously considered potential pitfalls facing those seeking permanent United States Expatriation in our consideration of Roger Ver and the United States' emigration dilemma.