Jury Duty in USA

@MacaeRick that’s a great question . I haven’t .

11/30/22 @MacaeRick. There are several "right" answers to that question, and the specific one for you depends on what level of continuing connection with a particular state you want and need. As over 3 million Puerto Ricans who live on that island can confirm, you don't have to be a resident of a state to remain a US citizen in good standing.

I don't maintain a US residence. My address at my US mail forwarder serves me perfectly well as the address for my credit cards, banking, and investments.  I also use it as the mailing address on my 1040, with no negative repercussions. I don't pay state income taxes. Since the mail forwarder is located in Texas, which has no state income tax, this address shields me from automatic state income tax withholdings on transactions like IRA withdrawals. It does mean that I apparently pay Texas sales taxes for online purchases, but that's no big deal.

If you're not a resident of a state, you probably won't be able to renew your Driver's License.  I addressed that by getting my Brazilian license on the basis of my Illinois license before it expired. Now I only keep the Brazilian license current .

If voting in US elections is a big deal for you, you need to check your current state's rules on former residents voting. I lucked out there: Illinois is very liberal on that, and lets former residents continue to vote there as long as they don't qualify to vote in another state. Some states have similar policies, but others are more restrictive.

ditto.

I come from a state with high state income taxes, so I have made extra effort to get all of my account addresses changed to my Brazilian address, even though its been a p-i-t-a for many of them since the computer programmers made foreign addresses not to fit in their field requirements.  This year I wont be paying any state income taxes.  My case is special, I'm a landord so I still own three houses back in the states and in one of them I still have a lot of stuff including a bedroom I can use to visit, and I still get some mail there but I have people on the lookout for anything that I would need to respond to.  Even the office of personnel management has my Brazil address and I expect to also use it on my US tax returns this year.

I did get a jury summons just two weeks before I left.  I wrote them immediately, explaining my plans, and they wrote me back telling me that I had been released from the call and my name dropped from the registry.

Wow, my expat life keeps getting more complicated. I do not have a residence (home/apt) or a car in the USA. I do use my sister-in-law's address as my permanent address. I don't have any particular reason to maintain a connection to that state (Maryland) other than I lived there for over 30 years and I use my sister-in-law's address as our permanent address.

Does your mail forwarding company work well for receiving mail/credit cards here in Brazil? If so can you tell me the name of the service you use, or some other recommendations? I also have a Brazilian Driver's license, but I wasn't sure I could drive in USA with a Brazilian Driver's license. If I can use my Brazilian Driver's license to rent cars while I am there, that would be OK.

Thanks for the information you provided. It gives me a lot of things to consider.

I don't know if my response mentioned it, but my reply was in response to abthree's post.

Thanks Inubia for the information you sent also.

12/01/22 Does your mail forwarding company work well for receiving mail/credit cards here in Brazil? If so can you tell me the name of the service you use, or some other recommendations? I also have a Brazilian Driver's license, but I wasn't sure I could drive in USA with a Brazilian Driver's license. If I can use my Brazilian Driver's license to rent cars while I am there, that would be OK.
Thanks for the information you provided. It gives me a lot of things to consider.
-@MacaeRick

The mail forwarding company works great for credit cards and mail.  Forwarding is a little expensive. They have discounts with the major express companies, but shipments to Brazil are still costly; it's possible to choose USPS International First Class for much less, but those shipments take weeks to arrive and don't have tracking.  The express shipments are fast and secure, which is what matters to me.  The forwarder offers the option of scanning mail, so for anything not sensitive or confidential I have them open, scan, and throw away, after I download the scan to my computer.  This kind of mail drops off quickly the longer you live abroad.  I receive and and pay all my US bills electronically, so they don't go through the forwarder.  After five years here, what passes through them is mostly US Government mail, Medicare Supplement mail, replacement credit cards, and some miscellaneous.  They'll also forward packages, but I discourage people from sending packages to me, because they invariably get tied up in Brazilian Customs.  If I want US items and we don't have a trip planned in the near future, I buy them from Amazon US, which has Brazilian Customs figured out and successfully delivers to our Brazilian address. 

Once you have a Brazilian address, support for your Social Security account should switch from the US-based SSA to the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) at the US Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal.  They are very responsive and easy to deal with by phone or email.  They'll mail your SSA-1099 to your Brazilian address, but mail between Brazil and Portugal moves pretty quickly.

I have never tried to rent a car in the US with my Brazilian license, but if I planned to, I would obtain an International Driving Permit (IDP) to use with it.  Some states require IDPs and some don't, but they're cheap and easy to get, so why risk it?  To use with a Brazilian license, the IDP needs to be obtained in Brazil.  Here's how:  https://internationaldrivingpermit.org/ … ng-permit/

Both my bank and my OPM pension now have my brazilian address....I receive things like credit cards, account statements, and cost of living adjustments through the regular mail.....it does take about 6 weeks to get here and I have to go down to the Post Office at least once a week to look through all the neighborhood mail to pull out mine, but the employee there is one of the family and I've never had any problems......

@MacaeRick I just had this happen back in June! I arrived in Brazil in mid- June and received my jury duty summons shortly after that in my US Mail (online) account. A couple of emails later, I only needed to show my Retirement Visa and I was released from Jury duty. Was pretty simple.

Thanks for the responses. I need to decide what to do this weekend.

@abthree

Bom dia!

Can you say a little more about amazon.com USA and how they have customs figured out?  I have been using amazon.com.br since I arrived in Brazil in June.  For some things it's very good. I can pay with PIX or my American Credit card.  But sometimes the selections are limited and the prices are way better on USA amazon for many items, but I haven't tried due to shipping costs and concerns about my shipments getting stuck or delayed somehow in Customs.  Thanks for any more advice!

Martin

I've made two purchases from amazon usa recently.

They have figured out not only brazil customs but also delivery to my door (I'm 500 miles from the nearest commercial airport).

I bought a quart of epoxy resin and hardener from the USA because its simply unknown here and I need it for woodworking projects.  Given the type of liquid petrochemical that it is, Amazon charged me over US $100 for the shipping and handling, but after it was delivered on time as promised, they gave me an $8.12 rebate because they had slightly overestimated the tariff.

Later on I bought canning jars.  There too, home preserving seems to be unknown here, in fact even in the grocery stores theres hardly anything for sale in jars.  Those, too, being pretty fragile, the shipping was pretty high but its important to me.  They are due to come this week.

12/03/22 @MA22. Sure Martin! 👍🏻 When buying from Amazon US, it's important to show your Brazilian address as the delivery address. When you do that, their system will automatically identify items that cannot be shipped to Brazil and tell you that they're unavailable. For items that can be shipped to Brazil, they'll estimate the tariffs and other taxes and the shipping costs, and charge them upfront. They show you the estimate before you make the purchase, so you know how much it will cost you. They clearly take care of the Customs clearance in the background, and get your order to your door. As Inubia said, if they overestimate the cost, they rebate the difference to whatever your method of payment was. If they underestimate it, they apparently eat the difference. At least, I've sometimes gotten a rebate, but never a chargeback.

Like Inubia, I've only bought items from them that I can't get in Brazil, because the combination of shipping, tariffs, and other taxes can easily add up to an additional 100% of the purchase price, or even more, especially on electronics or manufactured items. This is true even if the item is not made in Brazil, but an industry exists here that could make it. A package of the filters for our Roombas, unavailable in Brazil, costs $13.99 on Amazon US -- shipping is $20 and the taxes on it are $31.90! Unless the need is urgent, we keep a list of low-cost, high-tax items like that and stock up on them on our visits to the US.

We use Amazon BR a lot, too.  One weird quirk is that you can pay for products with a US credit card, but not for Prime membership.  That's why I got a Brazilian credit card, which we use almost exclusively on Amazon BR.  Amazon BR, like Amazon US, ordinarily takes care of the Customs and shipping for what they call "International Purchases".  MercadoLivre, which we also use, usually does the same, but sometimes they'll stick you with a shipment that you have to get released from Customs yourself.  You can do this remotely through the "Minhas Importações" area of the Correios website, which also works for direct shipments, if someone sends you something from abroad.

@MacaeRick, your former state may well have you in their database for jury duty (and the like) as you mention that you maintain a drivers license issued by that state.

Since you mention that you haven't received a summons in all that time, that could indicate either 'the luck of the draw' or that you have indeed been off their radar entirely.  But that could change upon your next renewal.

As @abthree points out, states have varying residency requirements.  And those are subject to change at any time, say in between your renewals.  If you renew and they now impose a residency requirement, then you could be on the legal hook for not only jury duty but for state taxes on your worldwide income.  That would be difficult to argue your way out of since you declared yourself a state resident for the renewal.

So it's worth researching  your state's requirement - as well as determining if you truly need the document.

@MacaeRick Thanks for all the good ideas about my jury duty summons. I called the jury duty help line and told them about my situation (that I was in Brazil and that it would be a great hardship for me to return in time). I was able to get a permanent release from any jury requests because I am over 70 years old (no questions asked). They were very friendly and accommodating. Most of my friends who are over 70 told me they also got released from jury duty because of their age.

Depending upon the State you reside, just a call  or e-mail to the local County Courthouse explaining you are abroad on an extended stay should suffice.  That was my experience, when I got my summons notice. 

I could have presented a copy of my passport with the stamped entry date, but they did not demanded it.

A simple explanation sufficed.   

That is the thing that makes America great. They don't complicate your life as they do in Brazil over these small trifles.  They will take it for the face value.  In Brazil, you would get rubber stamped to death with proof of certificates. 

I agree. I do like living in Brazil, but my wife gets tired of me complaining about how everything here is sooooooo much more difficult than in USA. She shuts me up by saying " Let's move back" and that shuts me up. KKKKKKKKKKK

I agree. I do like living in Brazil, but my wife gets tired of me complaining about how everything here is sooooooo much more difficult than in USA. She shuts me up by saying " Let's move back" and that shuts me up. KKKKKKKKKKK
-@MacaeRick

Yep, boy do I get it.....  It's so hard not to continually compare life and things in Brasil to things in Brasil and to just live with things as they are, especially when you are dealing with the Government, like annoying your day at DETRAN, LOL.