US Passport fees skyrocketing

[Think Different]

US boosts passport fees, sets value of citizenship

By MATTHEW LEE 
Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. citizenship is priceless to some, worthless to others. But now the State Department has a dollar figure: U.S. citizenship is worth $450.
At least that's what it will cost you to renounce it.
Under new consular fees published Thursday in the Federal Register, the cost of processing a formal renunciation of U.S. citizenship skyrocketed from $0 to $450. The announcement locks in fee hikes that had been proposed in 2010 and instituted on an interim basis.
The State Department doesn't say how or why it calculated the cost. Citizenship is free for most Americans who are accorded the privilege at birth. The department says only that it "has decided that the renunciant should pay this fee at the visit during which he or she swears the oath of renunciation."
It's also getting more expensive if you want to keep your U.S. citizenship and need a passport to prove it. The application fee for a passport is jumping by 27 percent, from $55 to $70 with a 100 percent increase, from $20 to $40, in the passport security surcharge.
In addition to the increase in the application fee, the department will now charge $82 - up from nothing - to add new pages to a U.S. passport. It says the fee is needed to offset the cost of the pages, the time spent affixing the pages into the passport book, endorsing the passport and performing a quality-control check.
And, registering the overseas birth of an American child is going up as well. It will now cost $100 to apply for a report of a birth abroad, up from $65.
The cost of getting a document notarized at a U.S. embassy abroad is also going up. The new price is $50 for a single page, up from $30, according to the new fee schedule.

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... 2-15-27-40

[FREEDOM1]

70 bucks thats cheap- the australian passport cost me $170 if i remember correctly
but you only do it every 10 years - so whatever
if i was an american - i would defibnatley try and get a second passport
the US tracks its citizens world wide

[odbo]

I think this has been discussed on here before but is there any benefit to renouncing your citizenship if you don't plan on coming back to the US? If you owe them money would they have you arrested in say New Zealand and ship you to the US, versus not doing that if you're not a citizen? Somehow I doubt that. What's the point of paying the $450? I'd rather just give them the middle finger.

[Mr S]

Government always finding new ways to steal citizens money, new "fees" are always a popular choice...

[Repatriate]

Where have you guys been this shit isn't news. The fee policies were instituted in 2010. I had to pay the "new" fee to get a new passport.

[Repatriate]

70 bucks thats cheap- the australian passport cost me $170 if i remember correctly
but you only do it every 10 years - so whatever
if i was an american - i would defibnatley try and get a second passport
the US tracks its citizens world wide

The U.S. passport is good every 10 years as well. Australia has a pretty high standard/cost of living these days so it's not surprising your govt is gouging on passport fees. I see a lot of aussies abroad.