Virtually impossible. Glen Roberts, the author of the book I mentioned, and others such as Mike Gogulski are not able to travel beyond international border checkpoints because they are voluntarily stateless.
I agree that it's a scary thing. For those two guys, they seem to be happy where they are and they can travel within the region. If you're stateless inside Schengen, for instance, you can move within the entire free movement zone...although that is becoming more and more restricted these days: I had to go through a passport check entering Germany from Luxembourg last year.
But, yes, not ideal. The people who have done it successfully are the lucky ones. Most often, it seems like being stateless in a country without already being a permanent resident or on some sort of long-term visa simply gets you arrested or deported. Joel Slater, for instance, was deported from Australia back to the US after renouncing but was, of course, no longer a US citizen, which made things complicated for him. This article seems to show that being stateless in Russia simply gets you put in jail until they figure out where to send you. Not optimal.
I love the idea of statelessness, but I'm not advocating that anyone go to prison or never be able to travel abroad or even return home to visit family just to avoid FATCA (or the many other ways the US government manages to interfere in the lives of its citizens living abroad). The fact is, it's just not so easy to pick up another passport unless you're wealthy...and I like being a nomad, in spite of my passport's growing list of limitations. So, FATCA it is!
One thing I find concerning, though, is that the IRS can revoke passports for unpaid taxes. In the case of Americans who participate in ICOs and fail to disclose their holdings, you could potentially run into that $50k threshold quite quickly...if you're "lucky" enough! Who's to say they don't expand it in the future to include past-due student loans, as well?
Virtually impossible. Glen Roberts, the author of the book I mentioned, and others such as Mike Gogulski are not able to travel beyond international border checkpoints because they are voluntarily stateless.
Then that's just another kind of slavery. :-(
I agree that it's a scary thing. For those two guys, they seem to be happy where they are and they can travel within the region. If you're stateless inside Schengen, for instance, you can move within the entire free movement zone...although that is becoming more and more restricted these days: I had to go through a passport check entering Germany from Luxembourg last year.
But, yes, not ideal. The people who have done it successfully are the lucky ones. Most often, it seems like being stateless in a country without already being a permanent resident or on some sort of long-term visa simply gets you arrested or deported. Joel Slater, for instance, was deported from Australia back to the US after renouncing but was, of course, no longer a US citizen, which made things complicated for him. This article seems to show that being stateless in Russia simply gets you put in jail until they figure out where to send you. Not optimal.
I love the idea of statelessness, but I'm not advocating that anyone go to prison or never be able to travel abroad or even return home to visit family just to avoid FATCA (or the many other ways the US government manages to interfere in the lives of its citizens living abroad). The fact is, it's just not so easy to pick up another passport unless you're wealthy...and I like being a nomad, in spite of my passport's growing list of limitations. So, FATCA it is!
One thing I find concerning, though, is that the IRS can revoke passports for unpaid taxes. In the case of Americans who participate in ICOs and fail to disclose their holdings, you could potentially run into that $50k threshold quite quickly...if you're "lucky" enough! Who's to say they don't expand it in the future to include past-due student loans, as well?