'Bitcoin Jesus' Renounced His American Citizenship- So Now The U.S. Isn't Letting Him In

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Roger Ver, a high-profile member of the Bitcoin community commonly known as "Bitcoin Jesus," has been denied a U.S. visa - despite having been born in the country.

Ver is well-known in the Bitcoin community as an entrepreneur and angel investor, having funded products including Blockchain, Ripple and Blockpay. He became known as "Bitcoin Jesus" after giving thousands of coins of the virtual currency away for free. He was born in the U.S. and was a citizen until he renounced his citizenship in March 2014-and now Ver says the Government isn't letting him back in.

As Coindesk is reporting, Ver has posted on Twitter that the U.S. government has refused his recent request for a non-immigrant visa, leaving him "effectively locked out of his native USA." 

Here's Ver's tweet:

Ver complains that the decision has forced him to miss speaking appointments at conferences in the States, and that the U.S. Embassy in Barbados refused to even consider the evidence for his application.

The official reasoning behind Ver's rejection is that he doesn't have sufficient "ties" to his home country in the Caribbean, and has not "demonstrated that [he] have the ties that will compel [him] to return to your home country after your travel to the United States," according to a picture he tweeted of a letter that appears to be from the embassy.

Flickr/OFFICIAL LEWEB PHOTOSRoger "Bitcoin Jesus" Ver

In short, U.S. officials are worried that Ver might choose not to leave, and become an illegal immigrant in his home country. 

Ver can't appeal the decision, but he is able to apply all over again, according to Coindesk. He has an American criminal record that could count against him, however - he's previously been jailed for 10 months for selling illegal firecrackers to farmers.

The fiercely libertarian entrepreneur has also appealed for others to follow his lead on citizenship, launching a website in June 2014 that helps wealthy people pay their way to citizenship on his new island home of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies.

He had originally surrendered his American citizenship a month after moving to the islands, in February 2014.

In an interview in 2013, Ver claimed discovering Bitcoin landed him in hospital, after he "stayed up nights reading about the currency and the lack of sleep made him sick."