Being stopped, searched, interrogated or simply questioned by U.S. federal government agents can be intimidating. Especially, if you do not know your legal rights.
It can be more intimidating on your arrival to the U.S. airport, if the CBP officer (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) demands that you physically “return voluntarily” your green card. The consequences they tell you will be immediate deportation from the U.S. 
- Removal from the U.S. – is it voluntary or not, under these circumstances?
- What are the U.S. federal tax consequences if you “return voluntarily” your green card?
- What if the CBP officer pulls out Forms W-8s you previously signed with your foreign financial institution and presents them to you in the airport and asks the following questions:
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- Why did you certify “under penalty of perjury” you were not a United States person on your foreign bank produced documents (you received in France, Germany, the U.K., Canada, Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, Australia — or any other foreign country)?
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- The officer then asks for all of the envelopes and papers in your luggage and opens the letters and files in your possession – See, the U.S. Supreme Court decision United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606 (1977).
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- There are important unintended tax consequences that can befall individuals here: see, Oops…Did I “Expatriate” and Never Know It: Lawful Permanent Residents Beware! International Tax Journal, CCH Wolters Kluwer, Jan.-Feb. 2014, Vol. 40 Issue 1, p9).
