I personally know of a case where the Borg disfellowshipped someone who had been inactive for over 25 years. He had been an elder before he "left the truth," and somewhere along the line he had divorced his wife and then years later had begun living with a different woman. There was no public controversy and he was not disfellowshipped at the time, probably because he had been inactive for so long. But a new Circuit Overseer came to town and decided to tie up loose ends. The elders confronted him and told him he would have to kick his paramour out of their home and stop seeing her altogether or else he would be disfellowshipped. He told them to pound sand, so they disfellowshipped him. Why, after all these years? The new Circuit Overseer said he was once well-known as a JW and some of his neighbors might remember this and know he was now "living in sin," so they had to avoid bringing reproach upon Jehovah's name the congregation.
I myself have not attended a meeting or presented myself as a JW for over 20 years. During that time, I got a divorce and moved far away. I also remarried, but was never officially disassociated or disfellowshipped. I could have been, but I guess the elders from my last congregation decided to use the "hold the matter in abeyance" provision of the Flocking the Sheep book because they never contacted me about it even though it was well known locally. Also, my now ex-wife didn't want me to be disfellowshipped because she still clung desperately to the hope that I might "come back" to the Truth™ and, before the divorce, possibly her.
Fast forward to today. I have been happily legally and "scripturally" married to the love of my life for several years. Most of my JW family still shuns me anyway, because my sins of the past were never "handled" by the congregation and I have been completely inactive for many years. Some refuse to talk to me at all because even a conversation with someone like me "undermines [their] faith." Some consider me too smart for my own good because I ask logical questions they find impossible to answer. Some grind their teeth that I have a "source" that provides me copies of "secret" WT documents, often before their elder friends and relatives get their own. I don't rub any of that in their faces, but they are aware that I often know too much too soon about most JW related matters.
Anyway, the point of all this is to say that could probably still reach out and disfellowship me at any time, if they chose to do so. This despite that fact that I live hundreds of miles away, no one around here even knows I ever was a JW, I have never gone to a KH in this area, and I am no longer "living in sin" and haven't done so for several years. I don't worry about it, and I really don't give a shirt.
