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Of course, finally when one does become a US citizen - it does seem like you reached goal and things finally settle down.
However, in the back of minds, every such first generation immigrant keeps an eye open to the "Plan B & C" of going back to the home country or else where some day once again to start this all over.
And, it never seemed that it could cause any problems in US to expatriate whenever you wanted. But not so easy any more ..Uncle Sam has put certain new checks to this process of 'expatriation' as well.. so exiting a maze is as difficult as entering it.
On June 17, 2008 a new 'exit tax' law was silently signed into force by former president George Bush, which makes expatriating from US a rather expensive step. The newly passed expatriation legislation imposes a "mark to market" tax on all worldwide assets owned by the "covered expatriate" on the day before expatriation occurs. Under this tax regime, all property is deemed sold on the day before expatriation and total net gains in excess of $600,000 are includable in income and taxed.
So who is considered an expatriate ?
By definition, "covered expatriates" can be either U.S. citizens or green card holders who decide to expatriate and who either had an average annual net income for the five years prior to expatriation greater than $139,000, which will be adjusted for inflation, or a net worth of a least $2 million on the actual date of expatriation.
Green card holders are also considered "covered expatriates" if they have had permanent resident status for at least eight of the 15 years prior to the expatriation, including the year of expatriation.
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