The U.S. State Department will begin revoking passports of parents who owe significant unpaid child support, according to multiple reports. The revocations start on Friday, initially targeting those who owe $100,000 or more, affecting approximately 2,700 American passport holders. This initiative is based on figures supplied by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Key Takeaways
The U.S. State Department will begin revoking passports of parents owing $100,000 or more in unpaid child support, affecting around 2,700 individuals. The program will expand to include those who owe over $2,500. Since the initiative's announcement, hundreds have resolved their debts.
The revocation program will soon expand to include parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support, a threshold set by a 1996 law that has been little enforced. Until this week, only those applying to renew their passports were subject to the penalty. Under the new policy, HHS will inform the State Department of all past-due payments exceeding $2,500, leading to passport revocations for affected parents.
Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar stated that this expansion is a 'commonsense practice' proven effective in getting parents to pay their debts. Since the Associated Press reported the program's expansion on February 10, the department has seen data indicating that hundreds of parents have resolved their arrears with state authorities.
The State Department advised any American with significant child support debt to contact the relevant state agency and arrange payment before any passport action is taken. Affected individuals must work with the state child support enforcement agency where the debt is owed, and HHS must then update its records before the State Department can process a new passport, a process that can take at least two to three weeks.
Affected individuals will be notified that they cannot use their documents for travel and must apply for a new passport once their debts are confirmed as paid. A passport holder abroad at the time of revocation will need to visit a U.S. embassy or consulate to obtain an emergency travel document allowing them to return to the United States.
The State Department emphasized that this action supports the welfare of American children by exacting real consequences for child support delinquency under existing federal law. The department is using 'commonsense tools to support American families and strengthen compliance' with US laws, enforcing parents' 'legal and moral obligations to their children'.
According to a late-February report from the Congressional Research Service, since going into effect in 1998, the passport-denial program has collected nearly $621 million in unpaid child support, including $30 million in 2024. Government data from 2000 shows that the program once resulted in 30 to 40 passport denials a day, prompting many of the rejected parents to pay their outstanding debt.
The State Department is authorized under the 1996 welfare reform law to revoke, restrict or limit a passport issued to a parent owing $2,500 or more in child support. The amount owed before potential action was originally $5,000 but was reduced in 2005.
How this summary was created
This summary synthesizes reporting from 8 independent publishers using AI. All sources are cited and linked below. NewsBalance is a news aggregator and media literacy tool, not a news publisher. AI-generated content may contain errors or inaccuracies — always verify important information with the original sources.