[3][4] During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps throughout the West Coast of the United States.
However, some people may wish to be free even of the purely theoretical obligations and appearance of dual loyalty that another citizenship implies.
Even in countries that allow dual citizenship, such as Australia, Jamaica and Pakistan, electoral laws demand that politicians not be under an obligation of allegiance to any foreign country, and so when politicians have been found to be violating such laws, they stepped down and renounced their other citizenships in response to the public controversy.
Some countries may not allow or do not recognize renunciation of citizenship or establish administrative procedures that are essentially impossible to complete.
For practical reasons, such an automatic renunciation cannot officially take place until the authorities of the original country are informed about the naturalization.
[14] Germany used to actively investigate whether its citizens living abroad had become naturalized when they apply for a passport; for instance in Canada, German passport applicants had to submit a search of citizenship record if they could not show a valid immigration document, such as a Canadian permanent resident card.
[16][17] In accordance with Japanese nationality law, the renouncing person is required to submit a formal report at an embassy.
However, after the vote, a point of order was raised against the amendment by Senate Deputy Minority Leader Ahmad Sani Yerima (ANPP-Zamfara), who stated that Schedule 2 of the Constitution prohibited the National Assembly of Nigeria from legislating on any matters relating to customary or Islamic law.
Senate President David Mark was initially disinclined to permit a second vote on the matter, but relented after an argument.
Yerima's arguments were sufficient to convince enough erstwhile supporters and non-voters to oppose the amendment; with a vote of 60–35, it was deprived of its supermajority and failed to pass.
[23] In 2012, a Hong Kong-born man who had acquired Singaporean citizenship by registration while a minor filed a lawsuit regarding this requirement.
[29][30] During the expatriation procedure, the individual must complete several documents and demonstrate in an interview with a consular officer that the renunciation is voluntary and intentional.
Depending on the embassy or consulate, the individual is often required to appear in person two times and conduct two separate interviews with consular officers over the course of several months.
[40][41] The names are not made public, but each month the FBI issues a report on the number of entries added in each category.
[42][43] In fiscal year 2015, the State Department estimated there were 5,986 applications for renunciation of nationality, and forecast an additional 559 citizenship relinquishments.
Unofficial statements by the US State Department ascribe the problems to the fact that before 2010, the system was not efficiently designed and consular officers often improvised their own procedures based on the rough guidelines in their instructions.
[56] On October 26, 2015, Forbes reported that during 2014, American dual citizens in Canada who were trying to renounce their U.S. citizenship created a backlog at the US Consulate in Toronto.
Originally, under the Foreign Investors Tax Act of 1966, people determined to be giving up citizenship for the purpose of avoiding US taxation were subject to 10 years of continued taxation on their US-source income, to prevent ex-citizens from taking advantage of special tax incentives offered to foreigners investing in the United States.
[58] In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act included various changes to the tax treatment of people who give up US citizenship.
First, it defined concrete criteria to determine whether an ex-citizen or ex-permanent resident was a "covered expatriate" presumed to have given up US status for tax reasons, based on the person's income and assets, or inability to certify compliance with their tax filing and payment obligations for the past five years (26 U.S.C. § 877(a)(2)).
[67] Eduardo Saverin, a Brazilian-born co-founder of Facebook, renounced his US citizenship just before the company's expected initial public offering.