Certificate of Loss of Nationality

You receive a CLN after you renounce or relinquish US citizenship. To renounce, you swear an oath before a US diplomatic or consular officer outside the US. To relinquish, you perform another listed act with intent to give up US citizenship. Naturalizing in another country after 18 is one. A consular officer prepares the CLN and records the act on it. Only the State Department in Washington can approve it.

The State Department’s fee for a CLN request is $450, from April 13, 2026. It was $2,350 before that. The $450 fee is the same whether you renounce or relinquish.

The tax code accepts a renunciation or relinquishment only once a CLN is issued. Your expatriation date for tax then reaches back to the oath, or to the day you gave the State Department a signed statement. So a relinquishing act from years ago usually counts for tax only from that statement.

A CLN is permanent, unless the government later overturns it because the act was involuntary or lacked intent. It does not cancel US taxes you already owe. If you are a covered expatriate, the exit tax can apply as well.