Originally Posted by
Blogndog
The only way you "relinquish" US citizenship without cost is if you are discovered to have committed fraud in acquiring it in the first place, or the US government decides to do what they have never done once in all of US history, and persuade a court that you have committed an "expatriating act," such as serving in another country's armed forces. "Relinquishing" in these circumstances is not voluntary.
If you wish to voluntarily lose your citizenship, "renunciation" is the only option, and with the latest revision to the consular fee schedule, it now costs over 2500 USD. There is no way to request to "relinquish" rather than "renounce".
This is absolutely not true. People regularly relinquish without having to pay. If you VOLUNTARILY commit an expatriating act WITH THE INTENT of relinquishing U.S. citizenship, you can lose it at no cost. The most common method is to voluntarily become naturalised in another country with the intent of losing your U.S. citizenship. The State Department has a questionnaire (form DS-4079) that has to be filled out which helps them determine your intent. Among the questions are whether you own any property in the United States, if you hold any professional licenses from the United States, whether you have used your U.S. Passport, voted in any U.S. elections, paid U.S. taxes and whether you have visited the U.S. since you committed your expatriating act, in this case became a naturalised citizen of another country. There are countless former citizens who have, and continue to, relinquish their U.S. citizenship without having to pay the fee to renounce. The key is once you have committed the potential relinquishing act, do not do anything that would make you look like a U.S. citizen (e.g. travel on your U.S. passport, vote in a U.S. election, pay U.S. taxes). If you have any of those things after you have committed the relinquishing act then you are out of luck and have to pay the fee to renounce.
The Issac Brock society in Canada is a great resource if you are considering renouncing or relinquishing. Among the resources are testimonials about the relinquishing and renunciation experiences from former Americans for various U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the world. Many of them are able to obtain their Certificate of Loss of Nationality (CLN) without having to pay the renunciation fee.