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You don't have to do anything to keep your American citizenship. You can't get rid of it without a significant amount of effort.

rolltiide 7y ago
Maybe they meant to renew the foreign visa But yeah that also wouldn’t require coming back to the US necessarily
- nine_zeros 7y ago
  Yeah, you would just drive to Laos or Cambodia or take a short flight to one of the nearby island countries for a week.
Descartes1 7y ago
America is one of the only nations in the world that taxes its expats also. You can't escape the USA. You are the property of the tax farm.
- glofish 7y ago
  I believe the reason for this is simple (though understandably unpopular): A lot of people that get rich because of America would just drop American citizenship once they do get rich to avoid paying back into the system that allowed them to become successful. There is no other country that offers as much upward mobility as the US to its citizens. Hence the tax.
  - selectodude 7y ago
    Also the services that the US Government provides to even their overseas expats is pretty remarkable. I’m not sure there’s another country in the world that can bail you out of a dicey situation within hours in almost any spot on earth.
    - pseingatl 7y ago
      You don't know what you are talking about. The US overseas generally won't lift a finger unless it has invaded the country in question. Canada, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Japan: all in fact assist.
  - lazyasciiart 7y ago
    Nope. First of all, social mobility in the US is not better than anywhere else (https://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobility/ https://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobi...) . Secondly, it's not that much harder to renounce US citizenship than other countries - in fact, in some ways it's easier because the US is the only country I know of that allows you to renounce citizenship without having another citizenship already. My point was only that you don't have to "actively keep" your citizenship, by visiting the US or any other means.
  - afthonos 7y ago
    This is a pleasant fiction, isn’t it? A quick look will tell you that the US is far below the Nordic countries in social mobility. For instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility

rolltiide 7y ago

Maybe they meant to renew the foreign visa But yeah that also wouldn’t require coming back to the US necessarily

nine_zeros 7y ago
Yeah, you would just drive to Laos or Cambodia or take a short flight to one of the nearby island countries for a week.

Descartes1 7y ago

America is one of the only nations in the world that taxes its expats also. You can't escape the USA. You are the property of the tax farm.

glofish 7y ago
I believe the reason for this is simple (though understandably unpopular): A lot of people that get rich because of America would just drop American citizenship once they do get rich to avoid paying back into the system that allowed them to become successful. There is no other country that offers as much upward mobility as the US to its citizens. Hence the tax.
- selectodude 7y ago
  Also the services that the US Government provides to even their overseas expats is pretty remarkable. I’m not sure there’s another country in the world that can bail you out of a dicey situation within hours in almost any spot on earth.
  - pseingatl 7y ago
    You don't know what you are talking about. The US overseas generally won't lift a finger unless it has invaded the country in question. Canada, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Japan: all in fact assist.
- lazyasciiart 7y ago
  Nope. First of all, social mobility in the US is not better than anywhere else (https://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobility/ https://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobi...) . Secondly, it's not that much harder to renounce US citizenship than other countries - in fact, in some ways it's easier because the US is the only country I know of that allows you to renounce citizenship without having another citizenship already. My point was only that you don't have to "actively keep" your citizenship, by visiting the US or any other means.
- afthonos 7y ago
  This is a pleasant fiction, isn’t it? A quick look will tell you that the US is far below the Nordic countries in social mobility. For instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility