The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that it will begin revoking passports of thousands of parents with unpaid child support debt. The revocations will start on Friday and will primarily focus on parents who owe more than $100,000 in child support.
Additionally, anyone with over $2,500 in unpaid court-ordered child support can be denied a passport or have their existing one forfeited under federal law, according to a release by the State Department.
“We are expanding a commonsense practice that has been proven effective at getting those who owe child support to pay their debt. Once these parents resolve their debts, they can once again enjoy the privilege of a U.S. passport,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar.
Since the program’s full implementation in 1998, states have recovered $657 million in child support arrears. This total includes more than $156 million collected since 2021 through over 24,000 individual lump-sum payments.
Following initial reports of the program’s expansion on February 10th, the department noted an immediate shift in compliance, stating it has “seen data that hundreds of parents took action and resolved their arrears with state authorities since news broke that the State Department would start proactively revoking passports.”
“While we can’t confirm the causation in all of those cases, we are taking this action precisely to impel these parents to do the right thing by their children and by U.S. law,” added the department.
Once revoked, a passport becomes entirely invalid and cannot be used for international travel, even after the underlying child support debt is settled. According to State Department guidance, an individual’s eligibility is only restored after the past-due balance is paid directly to the relevant state child support agency and the person’s name is cleared from federal delinquency records.
Following payment, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must update its internal tracking system before the State Department can begin processing a brand-new passport application — a multi-agency clearance process that typically takes at least two to three weeks to complete.
As of last week, the exact number of passport holders owing more than the $2,500 statutory threshold remains unclear, as HHS is still aggregating data from the various state agencies responsible for tracking these metrics. However, federal officials predict that once this lower threshold is fully implemented, the final tally could encompass many thousands of additional people.
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