Expat Magazine

July 2012 Quarterly List of US Renunciants

By Ovid @OvidPerl
The quarterly list of US renunciants has been published for July, 2012 (pdf, xml). I am highly suspicious of this list. First, only 189 people were reported as having renounced and this is one of the lowest numbers in years (it should have been at least twice this number). Given that people are saying they've renounced and their name is not showing up on the list and others reporting long waiting lists to get a renunciation appointment, I simply don't find this list very credible. I also wonder about "John Joseph Bentley" and "John J. Bentley", both of who are reported to have renounced.
I don't know if this is deliberate political tampering with this list or if it's just inefficient bureaucracy, but I find it highly unlikely there are only 189 renunciations (unless people have wised up and started relinquishing their citizenship instead of renouncing, thereby skipping this list).
My software has flagged several interesting names and I'm sending emails to people to verify (I won't report results unless they give me permission). Others, such as Chris Moonkey Nam are already known to have renounced their citizenship.
As an interesting side note: I was thinking about how many Republicans wanting to define life as beginning at conception. Since the US recognizes jus soli, are they going to start screaming about "anchor embryos"? Tourists visiting the US for their honeymoon could conceive on US soil and conceivably (hah!) give birth to US citizens in their home countries.

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