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How does a stateless person (one who voluntarily renounced their citizenship while in country) provide identification, arrange travel visas, and get back into the US?

irth
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  • What do you mean by "stateless person?" – feetwet Jun 09 '15 at 01:39
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    A person who renounces their citizenship is one way to be stateless – irth Jun 09 '15 at 04:57
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    @feetwet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness – o0'. Jun 09 '15 at 09:58
  • As the wikipedia link provided by Lohoris points out, the answer to this question would depend on the reason for "statelessness," and therefore it is too broad as currently written. – feetwet Jun 09 '15 at 12:52
  • @feetwet, thanks i'll update the question to be more precise. – irth Jun 10 '15 at 20:21
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    This question sounds suspiciously like a question about the "sovereign citizen" movement whose arguments that they are not subject to taxation, criminal laws, the draft, court jurisdiction, etc. are not valid and do not work. See http://law.stackexchange.com/questions/422/can-a-natural-us-person-hold-citizenship-while-remaining-non-juridical?rq=1 – ohwilleke Dec 05 '16 at 09:35
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    My suspicion is furthered because irth was previously asking the linked question. – ohwilleke Dec 05 '16 at 09:39
  • @ohwilleke, good observation. Yes, since my interactions with government revolve around commerce, I'm looking for contractual or other agreements that indenture my services to a modern government - specifically concerned with the ability to bestow citizenship/subjugation upon birth registration. If citizenship were sex, then that act would be statutory rape. Humbly seeking a Magna Carta 6.0 to reaffirm right to conscious choices. – irth Feb 19 '17 at 18:53
  • @irth Citizenship is not sex, and is not a voluntary agreement or contractual concept. It is a personal status, in the same way that when you are born you have the status imposed upon you of being "not married" and a "minor". There are acts that people can take during life that change their personal status (e.g. marrying, or becoming emancipated). But that doe not make the fact of having a personal status a matter of contract or agreement that only applies by consent. Your analysis is legally invalid and quite frankly dangerous (to you and people you deal with) to attempt to act upon. – ohwilleke Jul 28 '21 at 16:39
  • @irth You do not have a right to conscious choices in all things, and citizenship is one of them. It arises in the vast majority of cases by operation of law. A contrary right would be horrible as a matter of policy and has never been the law anywhere in the world. – ohwilleke Jul 28 '21 at 16:41
  • There are many situations where the USA won’t care whether you are a US citizen, or say a German citizen, or stateless. For example for collecting taxes, traffic fines, arresting you, etc etc. Provide ID? Not the USA’s problem. Visa? They don’t have to give you a visa. Get back into the USA? What do you mean with “back”? You’re not a US citizen. And unlike a German who will likely go back to Germany, a stateless person may want to stay in the USA, do you would avoid giving them a visa. – gnasher729 Jul 29 '21 at 09:53

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Short answer: You find a country who is willing to recognize you as stateless, and issue you travel papers. At that point you can enter the U.S. by applying for a visa.

The USA really does not want to create stateless people. They are laboring diplomatically to eradicate statelessness. As such, the State Department will want to see that you are secure in another country's citizenship before they will repudiate your US citizenship. Otherwise, they are very reluctant. The State Department will insist you do the repudiation in a foreign country at a US embassy. If you want to become stateless with your feet in the United States, you'll likely have a legal fight on your hands.

Regardless, it will cost you $2300 in filing fees (plus, all your back taxes) :)

At that point, you become the problem of the foreign country. You aren't anyone to the USA, and you have to apply for a visa just like anyone else.

When a stated person enters the US, immigration's pivotal concern is whether you'll leave the US consistent with the terms of your visa, i.e. return to your country of citizenship. Being stateless increases this risk, and being a USA expat increases that risk further, since you are so familiar and comfortable in the US.

If you found yourself in the kind of piccadillo that would qualify a foreigner for refugee or asylum status, the US would consider it just the same as others, since those statuses include right of residency. Some countries manufacture stateless people, e.g. Syria will not grant citizenship to a non-Muslim born there.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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    "It is legally impossible to renounce your USA citizenship whilst inside the USA." - But see Schnitzler v. United States (2014), Farrell v. Blinken (2021). TL;DR: The quoted statement is the position of the Department of State, but the DC Circuit seems to find it rather unconvincing. – Kevin Jul 27 '21 at 17:26
  • @Kevin The first was inconclusive and the second involved someone with another citizenship. The question on the table is about creating a stateless person. No court would ever do that, because they would be contradicting State's policy on ending statelessness worldwide, smuggling in an illegal migrant, and creating a huge and ugly mess that's only going to come back and bite them later. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jul 27 '21 at 18:29
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    That was not the State Department's official policy position in 2013, at which time they were expressly warning renunciants that they could become stateless. I do not know if their policy position has changed, but you should cite some source to that effect. – Kevin Jul 27 '21 at 18:45
  • @Kevin That's nothing more than a disclaimer; they're not saying the US will make you stateless. They are saying they can't prevent your new citizenship country from making you stateless, nor will they protect you if you claim to be an Austrian citizen and it turns out you munged the paperwork and you're not. This is the second time you've made flying leaps upon very weak signals; I don't know what to tell you about that. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jul 27 '21 at 20:59
  • I am not making leaps of any kind. I am asking you for a citation which you have repeatedly refused to provide. Your answer is a bare assertion based on nothing at all. – Kevin Jul 27 '21 at 21:06
  • Kevin, I am saying your own "references" have been very weak, and obvious, stretches that do not make your case. You are grasping at straws to foment your own bare assertions. Since you made effectively no constructive effort, I have no intention of laboring to, effectively, correct you. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jul 27 '21 at 21:23
  • Because I've done quite enough of that in the last 6 years, with people who present very weak data and don't care or realize it. I find presenting quality data to them wastes my time, and they're not going to persuaded anyway. I am asking you for quality data, which you have repeatedly refused to provide. You're the one challenging, you need to bring the data. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jul 27 '21 at 21:32
  • Well, you're the one claiming that the US follows a specific policy. You have presented no evidence to support that assertion, so I downvoted you. There's nothing else to discuss as far as I'm concerned. But do let me know if you edit your answer to fix this deficiency. – Kevin Jul 27 '21 at 21:53
  • This answer is incorrect. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_United_States_citizens_who_relinquished_their_nationality, which lists a small number of US-only citizens who renounced US citizenship and became stateless as a result. I also know a formerly stateless person who had (and regularly used) a US visitor's visa while she was stateless, despite not having a passport; it was inserted in her 1954 convention travel document (similar documents have been issued since the 1920s). – phoog Jul 28 '21 at 04:58
  • @Phoog Thanks... that's good info and I have edited accordingly. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jul 28 '21 at 07:49
  • @Kevin OK, I've updated and corrected. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jul 28 '21 at 07:49
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It does not appear there are any provisions for stateless people to enter the US or identify themselves therein. The US didn't ratify the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. If you manage to get into the US you will not be able to open a bank account or do anything else that requires ID.

dw1
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    I don't have any legal references, but I do know from personal experience that stateless people can travel to the US using refugee documents issued by other authorities. – phoog Jun 15 '15 at 19:02
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    Stateless people can also apply for asylum in the US, despite the fact that the US didn't ratify the convention. The US issues travel documents to these people, even though the documents are not convention documents. – phoog Nov 04 '16 at 22:49