Scenario, Renouncing US Citizenship and Cost

 So lets put up a scenario.  

X is 33, American-German....having come to Germany in the 1990s at age 2.  German-mother, American-father.

X went through German school, did German apprenticeship, and has worked his entire life in Germany....paying German taxes.

X gets a call from his German bank.

Bank says.....we know you were born in the US, and by your citizenship situation....we must provide your banking data to the IRS, via the social security number.  You must provide us (the German bank) with the social security number or show us you are a non-US citizen.

Obviously, X wakes up, and decides get rid of the US citizenship.

Path?  Well....first, you need to square away all past years of income and file 1040s for each year (X never cleared more than $50,000 a year so there is no US tax because of the foreign job status/foreign credit status).  It's a paperwork hassle, but not that tough.  

Then, the consulate wants you to have a US passport (something that X hasn't had since 2010....his teenage passport).  X does have a German national ID card.  So there's a hundred-dollar fee, a wasted trip to the embassy to get it started, which will be punched through a couple of weeks later.  

Then, there's about six different forms involved, with a collection of past residence in the US....basically a two-year period as a kid....some proof of parents.  

Then you get to the final interview, and the cash collection.   Their consulate fee for this dumping of the citizenship?  $2,350.....in cash or credit card.  They let you know....it's swipe machine (no pin) and it's 50-50 that your credit company allows the swipe to occur.  So you really need to show up with a thick wad of $2,350 bills.  

Then a month of review occurs before finally dumping you.

After hearing the story, I thought....if you aren't some rich multi-millionaire.....this current process (figure 10 months to get all of this done) is a pain-in-the-ass, and it'd be better to just submit a 1040 each year, pay no taxes, and live out your freaking life as a German-American.  

My other question.....all these guys crossing the border.....do they get the same treatment, and would their fee for processing their US citizenship be in the range of $2,350 (which they can't afford)?

Then I come to final thought....just how many German-Americans exist in Germany today?  Over 30 years, I've probably bumped into a dozen.....most were ages 20 to 40.  Just making an educated guess.....there's probably over 25,000 of them around the country.  I would imagine all of them are getting this bank 'caution'.  Most all of them probably have a social security number (some may not realize it).  

I would imagine the half-dozen US consulates are all getting these funny phone calls....how to dump the citizenship, and there's some shaking of heads over the amount of paperwork involved.