Americans Abroad

They were born in the US and left as children and never contemplated they might be US citizens until relatively recently. One guy was informed he was a US citizen by US Customs at the Vancouver airport only after passport requirement was introduced. He was born in Mississippi and that is his birthplace on his passport. The exception was born in South Africa to an American mother and grew up in Hong Kong and Singapore before her family settled in the UK, as as adult she moved to Canada. When she was born her birth was registered with the British consulate and not the American one. She visited the US for the first and only time when she was 17 for a trip to Disney World and New York.

Clearly this woman should be IRS hit squad target numero uno. She got nailed setting up her RRSP (Canadian 401K) when she was explicitly asked if she or her parents are American, she truthfully answered her mother was and with one check-box she was launched off into FATCA land. She is in a particularly annoying spot because although she is a US citizen by way of her mother, she has no documentation to actually support that. So she is on the FATCA radar, but she can't easily get a social security number so she can get right with the IRS.

Those are the victims of FATCA, those who just don't have the presence of mind (or any perceived reason) to lie.