Renounce Citizenship to Discharge Student Loans

[Student12345]

Can a US citizen formally renounce citizenship as an effective way to discharge US government student loans?

"effective" meaning not necessarily that the former citizen would no longer owe the debt, but that no country would pursue the former citizen for the debt.

[debtprison]

I believe you have to renounce citizenship while overseas. The last I heard there was a mention that it would be considered invalid if it made you stateless, that is, that you must have a dual-citizenship elsewhere prior to renouncing citizenship. Also I am not sure if it would make the debt automatically void. I doubt it. Or if it would prevent them from being able to go after you by an international agreement. Although it would definitely have to make it harder.

[sigferl]

Thanks for your post s1. Why do you not want to repay a student loan? Are you not grateful that someone loaned you the money to get a good education and a good job?

FWIW, I was grateful for my student loan and paid if off ASAP(2 years).

Freedom is not free.

Can a US citizen formally renounce citizenship as an effective way to discharge US government student loans?

"effective" meaning not necessarily that the former citizen would no longer owe the debt, but that no country would pursue the former citizen for the debt.

[MSbklawyer]

Can a US citizen formally renounce citizenship as an effective way to discharge US government student loans?

"effective" meaning not necessarily that the former citizen would no longer owe the debt, but that no country would pursue the former citizen for the debt.

No need to do something so drastic. If you renounce your citizenship, you'd need to be sure to be a citizen of some other country first or you'd end up being a person without a country. That has a lot of disadvantages. But when you renounce, you have to leave or get a visa, otherwise you're here illegally.

But to answer your question, no. If you're on US soil, you're subject to the jurisdiction of US courts. Creditors would be just as free to pursue you with or without citizenship.

Easier, is to move to Canada and become a citizen there or get an extended stay visa. Find a nice Canadian girl/guy to cuddle up with on those arctic nights and marry him/her. See, in Canada, student loans are dischargeable after they are 10 years old. United States courts, by treaty, recognize the judgments of Canadian courts. So you can have a US court enforce your Canadian bankruptcy.

[JRScott]

This has got to be the most idiotic idea I've ever heard.

No renouncing citizenship would not in any way absolve your debt.

[OhioFiler]

You'll also be foregoing the protections the Constitution provides you. But I suppose for some that option makes sense.

[adviceplease]

Um, I have $40,000 in student loans already but I rather remain a citizen and pay on them. You may want to rethink that. If it is really bad have you tried calling the lender and see if they will work something out with you?

[backtoschool]

Can a US citizen formally renounce citizenship as an effective way to discharge US government student loans?

"effective" meaning not necessarily that the former citizen would no longer owe the debt, but that no country would pursue the former citizen for the debt.

Why not just take a couple of online classes or classes at a community college every semester into perpetuity? You only need six credit hours to be a half time student and get a deferment where the government will pay the interest on your loans. You could postpone paying on your loans indefinitely by taking two classes at a community college or an online college every semester. The cost would come to under $100 a month. (versus the $1,500 a month I was paying before I got laid off)

Before I decided to switch careers to a lower paying career, where my loan payments wont be so bad on an income contingent plan, I was going to just keep getting community college associate's degrees until I died. My first one was going to be a degree in yoga.

Some of those degrees are actually just like the classes you take at your local recreation center anyway.

Get an online degree in finger painting and defer your loans and let the government pay the interest on your loans.

[hereforinfo]

Why not just take a couple of online classes or classes at a community college every semester into perpetuity? You only need six credit hours to be a half time student and get a deferment where the government will pay the interest on your loans. You could postpone paying on your loans indefinitely by taking two classes at a community college or an online college every semester. The cost would come to under $100 a month. (versus the $1,500 a month I was paying before I got laid off)

Before I decided to switch careers to a lower paying career, where my loan payments wont be so bad on an income contingent plan, I was going to just keep getting community college associate's degrees until I died. My first one was going to be a degree in yoga.

Some of those degrees are actually just like the classes you take at your local recreation center anyway.

Get an online degree in finger painting and defer your loans and let the government pay the interest on your loans.

Or just get a second job for the same number of hours you'd spend in class each week and use that income plus what you'd spend in more tuition to make a dent in the loans. Many student loans still accrue interest while in school deferment, and nothing is being paid on them. It's not feasible to go to school for the rest of your life so as soon as you stop the loans are due and they would be insanely high with all that interest building up over the years. No matter how long you're in school, those loans will be out there waiting for you and will have to be paid sometime.

[MSbklawyer]

Why not just take a couple of online classes or classes at a community college every semester into perpetuity? You only need six credit hours to be a half time student and get a deferment where the government will pay the interest on your loans.

That is absolutely ingenious and I am still kicking myself for not thinking of it. Is there anything that says to be qualified for this deferment that you have to actually be making progress toward a degree? Or is just taking random courses enough?

I see people quite frequently who are absolutely and hopelessly buried up to their eyeballs in student loan debt. It's worse than tax debt. Given enough time, taxes usually become dischargeable. But student loans: Well, just because you are a double amputee single mother of 6 making minimum wage and living in your car, we're not going to give you a discharge because you may, one day, get a job using your art appreciation degree (for which you went into debt $150,000) and be able to pay those loans back. So mean time, just get used to that wage garnishment or Chapter 13 payment. Yes, I am exaggerating. But not very much.

[backtoschool]

Or just get a second job for the same number of hours you'd spend in class each week and use that income plus what you'd spend in more tuition to make a dent in the loans. Many student loans still accrue interest while in school deferment, and nothing is being paid on them. It's not feasible to go to school for the rest of your life so as soon as you stop the loans are due and they would be insanely high with all that interest building up over the years. No matter how long you're in school, those loans will be out there waiting for you and will have to be paid sometime.

I suppose one could say that about all unsecured debt in bankruptcy too. I have heard many people say "just get a second job" as a solution to paying off unsecured debt. For most of us on this forum, if that was a viable solution we would not be filing for bankruptcy. Why the judgmental tone? Is one type of debt superior to another, and therefore its "ok" to discharge it without getting a second job?

[adviceplease]

This would work if paying out of pocket for the classes. If they try to get additional loans at some point (around 90 + credit hours) they say no until you can prove that you are in a program with expectant date to graduate. A lot of my friends have run into this program trying to get into a nursing program because there are only a few spots and a ton of applicants. I myself have been going every other semester for the last 2 because I can not apply for a program until April the next start date, this keeps the loan payments away.

I guess that is financial aides way of weeding out the career students...lol. I myself will be working on a ph.d before I pay those loans back.

I suppose one could say that about all unsecured debt in bankruptcy too. I have heard many people say "just get a second job" as a solution to paying off unsecured debt. For most of us on this forum, if that was a viable solution we would not be filing for bankruptcy. Why the judgmental tone? Is one type of debt superior to another, and therefore its "ok" to discharge it without getting a second job?

[backtoschool]

That is absolutely ingenious and I am still kicking myself for not thinking of it. Is there anything that says to be qualified for this deferment that you have to actually be making progress toward a degree? Or is just taking random courses enough?

I see people quite frequently who are absolutely and hopelessly buried up to their eyeballs in student loan debt. It's worse than tax debt. Given enough time, taxes usually become dischargeable. But student loans: Well, just because you are a double amputee single mother of 6 making minimum wage and living in your car, we're not going to give you a discharge because you may, one day, get a job using your art appreciation degree (for which you went into debt $150,000) and be able to pay those loans back. So mean time, just get used to that wage garnishment or Chapter 13 payment. Yes, I am exaggerating. But not very much.

Yes you have to "make progress towards a degree", but that just means that you informally declare a "major" when you register. (you also have to have a C average on your grades, but if you can't get a C in your yoga class then you are probably still left in a floor in a knot where the instructor left you. )

[hereforinfo]

I suppose one could say that about all unsecured debt in bankruptcy too. I have heard many people say "just get a second job" as a solution to paying off unsecured debt. For most of us on this forum, if that was a viable solution we would not be filing for bankruptcy. Why the judgmental tone? Is one type of debt superior to another, and therefore its "ok" to discharge it without getting a second job?

The fact is, student loans cannot be discharged. That's the difference. The student loan debt will never go away. Taking classes for the sole purpose of delaying your loan repayment will only work for so long and costs money, plus for many loans the interest continues to accrue and the debt grows. Why spend that time in class, which costs you money, while the interest builds up and the loans grow, when you can spend that time working and actually making a dent in the student loan which you have to do at some point anyway? It's never going to go away. At some point you can't take classes any longer. What do you do then?

[backtoschool]

No, the point is that the student loan debt will never go away and cannot be discharged like the other debt. Taking classes for the sole purpose of delaying your loan repayment will only work for so long and costs money, plus for many loans the interest continues to accrue and the debt grows. Why spend that time in class, which costs you money, while the interest builds up and the loans grow, when you can spend that time working and actually making a dent in the student loan which you have to do at some point anyway? It's never going to go away. At some point you can't take classes any longer. What do you do then?

I have over $100,000 in student loans. All of them are subsidized stafford loans, meaning that the gov't will pay the interest when I am in school.

My income was high before I was laid off. My student loan payments were $1,500 a month.

Taking 6 credit hours at a community college at night or online was $370 ie, under $100 a month. Interest wasn't going to accrue on my loans, because the government would pay my loans while I was in school.

I would have saved over $1,400 a month by doing this, and I could have done it for the rest of my life with no penalty, ie, there was no limit to the amount of time I could stay in school doing this.

I was working full time, having a life, etc, this would have been just extra night or weekend classes that I would have taken to fend off the loans.

By the time I died, I figured I would have had 30+ associates degrees But I would not have had to pay back my student loans.

There is no time limit to how many student deferments you can get. You can be in school part time for the rest of your life.