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Comment on "US Person": is a red flag for financial institutions in Europe

thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

american in europe here,

this is true. it’s very nearly impossible to open a bank account. There is exactly one bank in Switzerland who allows americans to open accounts, UBS. So far no banks in france have allowed me to open an account, even though I have a french residency permit. This makes it nearly impossible to take loans to buy things like houses or cars. Basically life here is impossible because being american fucking sucks.

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FosterMolasses@leminal.space ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This is crazy to learn about. Afaik no Americans in the UK have ever had issues opening bank accounts, even students.

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discocactus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Open an account at Service CU out of NH. Designed to work in Europe (IBAN, free foreign ATMs, etc). Everyone who works for the state department gets it, and afaik it’s open to the public.

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- thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  iban thing is nice, do you know if you can finance cars or homes? right now i have to have to drive around a beater because no european bank = no loan
  
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  - Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I’ve used ServiceCU for more than 20 years and yes you can buy cars and such through them
    
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    thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    thanks! I’m going to check them out.
    
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  - discocactus@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Never tried that. Worth emailing their rep probably.
    
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PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Renounce your citizenship.

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- Pika@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  I want to add that renouncing your citizenship also isn’t a valid option for many.
  
  One of the hard requirements for renouncing your citizenship is having citizenship in another country, and that is easier said than done in many countries. Like for example, Canada, you have to be a perm resident in the country for four years and also have lived there for the past six, Mexico requires 5 years. most of the EU has 5-10 years as their resident requirement.
  
  And that’s also ignoring the cost that they require of a citizen to renounce their Citizenship. It’s 2300+ USD to do if you manage to get it first try, and that can be denied still.
  
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- thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  i don’t have a second citizenship to fall back on, so i’d be stateless. also, i can’t afford to since you have to pay all the taxes on potential income for the next 10 years or something
  
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  - teft@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Only people who make more than 200k/year or have more than 2 million in unrealized taxable assets have to pay an expatriation tax.
    
    There is no paying future taxes as that’d be asinine.
    
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    thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    TIL, i thought i read that 10 year tax thing somewhere. probably just bs i saw online and didn’t look into it
    
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    diablomnky666@lemmy.wtf ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    You only have to pay taxes for 10 years after expatriation if you set foot on US soil for more than 30 days during that period.
    
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Lumisal@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
You have residency, but do you have an official French ID, like a police ID? In Finland at least the residency permit does not count as a valid ID and you have to get a separate one (like a driver’s license or police ID) in order to for example open a bank account.

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