Assistance for Americans Residing Overseas

(American Citizens Abroad, ACA, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group that serves and works on behalf of American citizens living and working worldwide.)

For many, living and working abroad for extended periods of time it became the adventure of a lifetime. Many trek off to unknown lands in order to give their expertise in improving the lives of the people; the trader came and sought out business relations; the pensioners returned to the land of their forefathers living the remainder of their lives on that holy soil; the student sought out the culture of a foreign land.

Whatever your case, by traveling to a new land, you'll have the chance to immerse yourself in the culture and meet people on their own terms. No matter what your reasons are for working and living abroad you are still an American citizen with rights of all American citizen. Yet, there are problems, unanswered questions pertaining to your rights that need to be attended. You will need an umbrella organization that has the interest of overseas Americans in mind - "American Citizens Abroad' organization's prime goal is to assist American citizens living worldwide...

Founded in Geneva in 1978, under Swiss bylaws 'American Citizens Abroad' works with groups and organizations to achieve common goals on many issues affecting Americans residing abroad, such as: fair taxation, Medicare, absentee voting and being counted in the next census. ACA has members in over 90 countries and every day, the ACA head office in Geneva handles requests for assistance and information on citizenship, taxes, social security, health insurance, etc..

Many overseas American citizens are frustrated recently by the new regulations of 'USA PATRIOT ACT" by the notice that some American banks will not open new accounts if they have foreign residence and can't provide an address in the U.S. . In fact many banks stateside went so far as to close accounts of American citizens with foreign addresses.