The phenomenon of US nationals in Switzerland giving up their citizenships is not new, but now there is a different twist to the old story.
The Local has been reporting on Americans giving up their US citizenships since 2012, proving that this is not a recent trend.
Over the years, the number of those who have renounced their US citizenship has been growing, and the primary reason cited for this drastic and irrevocable step is taxes and other financial constraints imposed by Uncle Sam on Americans living abroad.
Although it is officially illegal for Americans to renounce for tax reasons the tax problems they face was acknowledged by the US government itself when it announced earlier this year that the fee for renouncing citizenship was being cut after years of battling by campaigners.
Not only are Americans required to report all their assets held in foreign banks – for instance, savings accounts and mortgages – but they must also declare the income they earn, even though it is generated in a foreign country, where they already pay local taxes.
This has placed a considerable financial burden on expatriate families, many of whom decide – once they become naturalised in their country of residence – to give up their US citizenships once and for all.
READ MORE: Why do US citizens in Switzerland give up their American passports?
Upward trend
Though the number of those who had given up their citizenships in Switzerland alone is not readily available, globally more than 30,000 Americans have done so in the past decade, according to the list of names published by the US government.
According to Swiss media Watson, appointments for renouncing citizenship are multiplying at the American embassy in Bern.
Though the Embassy doesn’t provide numbers on who many applications are currently waiting to be treated, it does have a page explaining what the process of ‘expatriation’ entails.
But it’s not just Americans in Switzerland who are making appointments in Bern. Due to long waits at other US embassies around Europe, many Americans are choosing to renounce via the embassy in Bern because it is quicker, the Guardian reported.
Not just financial obligations anymore
But this spike in numbers is no longer driven only by tax reasons, with grounds for expatriation often reflecting the political situation in the US.
According to the report in Watson news platform, many applicants are “citing polarisation in the United States,” as the main reason for their decision to renounce.
It quotes one US citizen, Margo, who said she is giving up her citizenship because she doesn’t want to “be part of a dictatorship.”
She is hardly alone.
As one former American citizen, Susan, told The Local, “Trump’s return to the Oval Office was the final straw.”
Susan, who has lived in Vaud for the past 19 years and expatriated at the end of 2025, explained that since Trump’s re-election “I no longer recognise the country I grew up in and I no longer want any part of it.”
She added that her 21-year-old daughter, who was born in the US but has lived in Switzerland most of her life, is now on the waiting list for an expatriation interview at the Bern Embassy.
“She told me, ‘mom, I can’t be associated with the country that elected that despot not once, but twice’.”
READ MORE: US finally slashes citizenship renunciation fee
‘No one wants us’
Americans in Switzerland have told The Local previously how they struggle to open savings accounts due to banks not wanting to take them on because of the financial obligations they face with US authorities.
One Swiss resident, originally from Texas told us previously: “We are effectively unable to save for retirement through investments in mutual funds and stocks because institutions in our country of residence don’t accept US persons, and also because of the punitive way they are treated under US tax law.”
READ ALSO: ‘No one wants us’: Why Americans in Switzerland struggle to save for retirement
