Just so you know, Green card holders and citizens have the exact same requirements when it comes to taxes and foreign account disclosures. If you are a Permanent resident/Green card holder, you still have to file taxes with IRS regardless of where you live or where your accounts are. The foreign bank account law (FATCA) also applies to permanent residents.

Yes, but permanent residency is easily abandoned, and can later be reobtained if desired (through any available means of immigration).

not so.

there is the tale of a french game developer who did what you said, and the IRS still managed to froze his foreign bank account.

basically, he gave up his US residency. Moved back to his native france, joined a game company that turned huge. on the IPO(?) the IRS got france to hold his assets because he was evading taxes, by renouncing the residency.

..i'm trying to find the history or the names. but failing, i'm sure someone here can help...

But if you're going to abandon your green card, you need to do it before the eight year because doing it after that makes you subject to the exit tax where abandoning your green card requires giving up a nice chuck of your net worth.

As a green card holder, you are already taxed as a US permanent resident (ie: in the exact same way as a US citizen, regardless of where you live). If your bank knows and hasn't forced you to close your account, they're probably OK with having you. If they don't know, well, use your best judgment.

> My concern is that if I was a US citizen, the bank might close my account for the reasons cited in the article. So now I won't be able to get citizenship (and e.g. vote, get a US passport) until my loans are completely paid off and I can close the account.

So when you're a US citizen, they will close your bank account, and you will not be able to become a US citizen anymore? I don't quite follow.

I'm not sure what you aren't following.

- I am currently a green card holder

- I can remain in the US indefinitely, I only have to pay $500 to renew my green card every 10 years, inform them if I am abroad for over 6 months, and not commit any serious crimes.

- I can apply for US citizenship in 2-4 years. US citizenship grants me some rights and takes away from restrictions.

- If I apply/gain for US Citizenship my bank abroad might close my account due to the US government rules (see the article).

- So instead I won't apply, will remain on a green card, and will wait until the account can be closed in 7-10 years time.

- Once the account is closed I can apply for US Citizenship if I wish.

OK, I get that you have the risk of your bank account being closed due to citizenship (which I imagine, is something that can only happen after the fact?) but I just don't see what the possibility of closing of your foreign bank account has to do with obtaining your citizenship.

Not trying to be pedantic, just genuinely curious (I'm a GC holder myself): Why should the USCIS care about your foreign bank account?

He's saying he can't get citizenship in the sense that he can't risk having his foreign bank account closed--not that he is prevented from doing so by the US government.

It has nothing to do with it. But up until now the majority of accounts negatively impacted by these rules have been owned by US Citizens, US Permanent Residence have slipped under the radar so far partly because our accounts are owned by a local national (in our respective home countries) from the perspective of the bank and partly because they just haven't done it yet.

If you change status from a permanent resident to a citizen it won't magically cause your bank account to close, but you might now be on their "list" and the US government can move easily bully a bank into closing the account of one of "their" nationals. It has nothing to do with the USCIS, and everything to do with the IRS.

if parent becomes a US citizen, parent's bank account might be closed. therefore, parent 'cannot' become a citizen.

Have you run the numbers on refinancing the loan?

(I realize it may not be an option, but if you already have a fairly clear plan to stay in the US, it would seem worth pursuing, maybe even just to avoid all the money transfer fees)

Don't know about GP, but as a Swede the interest on my government student loan is lower than the interest on my savings account. I imagine the situation is similar in other parts of Europe.

Pretty hard to compete with that.

Yeah, I don't necessarily expect it would make sense. I don't even know what sort of US loan you could get to do such a thing.

But if the loans aren't all that large, maybe it's still worth spending an extra $1000. A specific analysis of a real situation is what I was interested in.

If you live in the US and your other bank becomes aware of that, they'll probably decide it's easier to close your account than deal with FATCA anyway.