The U.S. government is ramping up pressure on parents who haven’t kept up with child support.
The State Department has launched a proactive campaign to revoke the passports of thousands of Americans who owe significant back payments. The first phase of this crackdown specifically hits about 2,700 individuals who owe $100,000 or more, but the net is about to get much wider.
While the current focus is on high amounts of debt, officials confirmed the program will soon include anyone owing more than $2,500. This threshold is based on a 1996 law that, until now, was mostly enforced only when someone tried to renew their travel documents. Moving forward, the Department of Health and Human Services will share debt records directly with the State Department to cancel active passports immediately.
“We are expanding a commonsense practice that has been proven effective at getting those who owe child support to pay their debt,” Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar said. “Once these parents resolve their debts, they can once again enjoy the privilege of a U.S. passport.”
Data suggests that the mere threat of losing travel privileges is enough to get people to pay. Since the expansion was first announced earlier this year, hundreds of parents have already settled their accounts with state authorities. Historically, this enforcement tool has been highly successful, helping to pull in over $657 million in arrears since the late 90s.
“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,” the department said.
For those currently abroad, the situation is urgent. If a passport is revoked while a parent is in a foreign country, they will have to go to a U.S. embassy just to get an emergency document to fly back home.
Once the debt is paid off, the parent doesn’t just get their old passport back, they have to start the application process over from scratch to get a new one.
