Do I need a US Passport?

My US passport is expired, and I was considering getting it renewed, but am wondering... Why should I?

I never intend to live in the USA again.
If i needed to travel to the US, to visit my family, I have a machine readable British passport, so i could visit on the Visa Waiver Programme.


Can you guys think of any reason why i need a US passport?   Is there something I'm missing or not considering thoroughly?

You could get fined for entering the US without using a US passport if you are entitled to one.  It's sad and disgusting and I hate it - but, yes, you should probably renew the US passport.

 

FINED?!   
What IS it with these control freaks?!

Can you tell me where i can read about this?

FINED?!   
What IS it with these control freaks?!

Can you tell me where i can read about this?

Yes, fined. 

Cait posted some excellent links in the 'Registered Baby' thread in the Parenting section. 

Thanks guys... i will go and have a look at the links.

Can not f*cking believe this! 

As stated above, as a US citizen you are required to enter and leave the US on a US passport (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1753.html). But, honestly, why would you go through the hassle of being photographed and finger printed when you can waltz through the US line?

You could always renounce your US citizenship....

You could always renounce your US citizenship....

In this day and age that would probably get you on a no fly list....

In this day and age that would probably get you on a no fly list....

lol so true

But, honestly, why would you go through the hassle of being photographed and finger printed when you can waltz through the US line?

At Newark, the visitor line usually goes faster than the US line.  Go figure...

Can not f*cking believe this! 

As a child, did you ever lie down on a grassy spot with your playmates and look up at the clouds and imagine that they were imaginary animals?  And each person sees a different thing in each cloud formation, like one person sees a duck but another thinks it's a giraffe?  Unbounded imagination.  Happy childhood memories.

*BUT* if instead of children on a playground, it is people making policy looking at those clouds...  And if instead of ducks and giraffes it is any conceivable threat that anybody can dream up, no matter how unrealistic or outlandish...

Post 9/11 hysteria.

Thanks for all the reminders of why I no longer travel to the US . . . 

In this day and age that would probably get you on a no fly list....

And, so? If you believed in something so much that you'd renounce your citizenship over it, you'd (hopefully) have done so in full knowledge of the repurcussions, and considered it small price to pay to be true to your beliefs. One would think, anyway. Otherwise, your beliefs don't mean that much to you, or at least not enough to renounce your citizenship, because the perks of retaining it mean more.

Wait a minute - are you saying that just because you don't want to be a citizen of the US, that means you shouldn't be able to visit it???

I don't want to be a citizen of Russia, but I'd like to visit it some day. 

Truly, I really don't understand why some folks don't just get it over with and renounce their citizenship.  I think some would feel over the moon about it!  Maybe take out some advertising space in the local paper (over there and here) to spread the news, hold a press conference, maybe hire a plane to write it in the sky? There is no limit what you can do to express the joy of no longer being a US citizen. 

On the flip side, guess some folks won't mind being an American when it comes time to retire and collect their Retirement/Social Security benefit?