Re: My citizenship renunciation made difficult

[Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>]

	I believe that the UN Universal Declaration of Human rights
includes the right to emmigrate without undue hardship.  I would
suggest contacting Amnesty International to complain about this
harrassment by the US government.

	Article 13, section 2, article 15, section 2.

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

On Mon, Oct 19, 1998 at 10:17:12PM -0400, Vincent Cate wrote:
| 
| My Barbados Embassy/Consulate contact Steve Steger (246) 228 4338 called
| me up and told me that the state department has not approved my
| renunciation - they say one of the forms the Barbados guys had me fill out
| is old.
| 
| For those just tuning in, I renounced my citizenship to be free of US laws
| on cryptography.
| 
| While I was at the Consulate they had me fill out a 1st set of forms, then
| said those were obsolete (a few years back) and after waiting around for
| hours they had me fill out a 2nd set of forms that they said was the
| current version.  I filled out and signed everything they gave me.  They
| then had an interview with several witnesses.  They took my US passport
| and gave me copies of the 2nd version of all the forms with my signatures
| and theirs on them. 
| 
| Now Steve says that I am supposed to travel down to Barbados again using
| up my time and my money because of their error to do a 3rd version of
| their forms. Both the time and the money make this a hardship.  They won't
| mail me this 3rd version of the forms and they won't pay for my trip (let
| alone time). 
| 
| It seems to me that since I told the New York times that I renounced my US
| citizenship, and they told the world, that it should be a done deal. Also,
| spending a day in the Consulate signing everything they gave me should be
| enough to do it.  And why is a form saying basically "I renounce my
| citizenship" that worked awhile back not effective today?
| 
| But most of all, the very idea that the US government has to give me
| permission to renounce my association with it seems totally wrong.  The
| people in the US are supposed to be free, not slaves or subjects.  Free
| means free to leave. 
| 
| Any advice?
| 
|    -- Vince
| 
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|  Vincent Cate                           Offshore Information Services
|  Vince@Offshore.com.ai                  http://www.offshore.com.ai/
|  Anguilla, BWI                          http://www.offshore.com.ai/vince
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| 
| You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it
| happen the way you want to take it.    - German Proverb
| 
| 

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume