State Dept. to ramp up passport revocations over unpaid child support

by · UPI

May 7 (UPI) -- The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will ramp up passport revocations for American parents who owe "significant" unpaid child support, proactively employing a decades-old authority to enforce child-support obligations.

The State Department is authorized under a 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.

Since going into effect in 1998, the passport-denial program has collected nearly $621 million in unpaid child support, including $30 million in 2024, according to a late-February report from the Congressional Research Service.

Government data from 2000 show that the program once resulted in 30 to 40 passport denials a day, prompting many of the rejected parents to pay their outstanding debt in order to obtain their travel documents.

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It was not clear how many passports have been denied or revoked in recent years due to child-support debt, but the State Department said in a statement Thursday that it would work with the Department of Health and Human Services on an "unprecedented scale to revoke the passports of Americans who have racked up significant outstanding child support debt."

"This action supports the welfare of American children by exacting real consequences for child support delinquency under existing federal law," the State Department Said, adding that it was "putting American families first through our passport process."

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs warned Americans Thursday that anyone owing child support should arrange to make payment now.

"If outside the U.S. when their passport is revoked, individuals with significant debt will be eligible ONLY for a limited validity passport for direct return to the United States," it said in an online statement.

According to the CRS report, all 50 states and the District of Columbia operate Child Support Enforcement programs. They identify cases with past-due support exceeding $2,500 and inform the obligors as well as the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, within HHS, which then contacts the Consular Lookout Support System of the State Department to facilitate passport denials and revocations.

The State Department on Thursday warned that once a passport is revoked, eligibility for a new one will only be restored when the parent is no longer considered delinquent according to HHS records.