How to receive my US tax refund?

I'm an American who has been living here in the UK as of the end of Dec. 2010, and I need to file my US taxes, as I normally have done every year, except that of course I need to have my refund sent to me here in the UK. My mom sent me my tax forms and W2's, I filled it all out last night and I'm owed a small refund. I was planning to have it directly deposited into a bank account here in the UK, but looking at the form I'm not sure now if you can have your refund direct deposited outside of the USA? If I have to have them send me a check, it will take a lot longer, and my DF said that there's a fee from the banks here to cash a check from outside the UK in a foreign currency. I was just wondering, since this is my first time filing US taxes outside of the USA, what my best option is to collect my refund?

Did you keep a US account open?  What I did was have the checks sent to me here (as I had E&Y do the returns, they were more a little more complicated since I've now been here a couple of years) and they (well, NY state has, so far) sent the check to me, which I mailed for deposit in the bank in my US account Given the snowstorms, there's been a bit of a delay in the mail, but it seems like it should be fine.

I do think if you want to desposit in bank here, the fee is unavoidable.  the only other thing I can recommend is possibly having your mother deposit in her account (if you sign it over to her) and she does a currency trade to your UK account using XE trader, or something?  with XE, you get a slightly less favorable exchange rate, but there is no fee attached to the trade.

I've already canceled my US bank account, it's too bad I didn't still have that or I could've just had it direct deposited into that one and it shouldn't have been a problem. My DF is going to make one of his bank accounts into a joint account for us, and I wanted to have the refund direct deposited there, but I don't know if they can do direct deposit into a non-US bank account. I suppose I'm stuck with having them send me a check in that case, hopefully then I can have it cashed here in the UK without too much hassle and too much money taken out in fees.

I have the problem that I had my last check sent to the UK, and it was printed with my UK address & maiden name. My UK bank won't let me deposit the check because I have a joint account in my married name and my US one won't deposit because it has a UK address on it.

So if you have it sent to the UK it must match the name and address of your bank account details. I think I am sending it to the US this year!

I've already canceled my US bank account, it's too bad I didn't still have that or I could've just had it direct deposited into that one and it shouldn't have been a problem. My DF is going to make one of his bank accounts into a joint account for us, and I wanted to have the refund direct deposited there, but I don't know if they can do direct deposit into a non-US bank account. I suppose I'm stuck with having them send me a check in that case, hopefully then I can have it cashed here in the UK without too much hassle and too much money taken out in fees.

I wouldn't try to deposit a USD check in a GBP bank account - they'll definitely rip you. Easier maybe to open some sort of a internet account back in the US - see the list here: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/TheTop10OnlineBanks.aspx