The US State Department said it will start to revoke passports held by Americans who owe more than $2,500 in child support, in a sharper enforcement move in the United States that the Associated Press reported would begin on Friday. The policy targets parents with what officials described as significant outstanding child support debt, turning an old legal power into a far more immediate penalty.
In coordination with@HHSGov,@StateDeptis holding parents who owe significant child support accountable by revoking their passports. If you owe more than $2,500 in child support, arrange payment now to the relevant state child support enforcement agency.https://t.co/wvmM4lZ0Ta
Passport revocation for unpaid child support above that threshold has been allowed under a federal law dating back to 1996, but according to BBC, it was rarely enforced and had previously tended to bite when someone tried to renew a passport rather than through active cancellation of a valid one already in hand.
This time, the State Department is presenting the measure in blunt moral and legal terms. It said it is using 'commonsense tools to support American families and strengthen compliance' with US law, and argued that the approach would enforce parents' 'legal and moral obligations to their children.'
For years, the penalty appears to have sat in the background, serious on paper but uneven in effect. Now the department says it will work with the US Department of Health and Human Services to identify parents with qualifying debt and revoke passports outright, which is a much more direct threat for anyone used to thinking of travel documents as secure until expiry.
US to revoke passports of parents with child support debthttps://t.co/OSCbkWQU7m
The practical warning from officials was equally clear. Parents with more than $2,500, or about €1,844, in unpaid child support were advised to arrange payment with the relevant state agency if they want to avoid losing their passport.
Once a passport has been revoked, the State Department said, it can no longer be used for travel, and the holder will not be eligible for a new one until the child support debt has been paid.
In its statement, the department framed the move as part of a broader family welfare case rather than an administrative cleanup. 'This action supports the welfare of American children by exacting real consequences for child support delinquency under existing federal law,' it said. That is the sort of phrasing governments use when they want to show not only that they can act, but that they think they should.
The hardest edge of the policy may be felt by people who are already outside the US when their passport is revoked. According to BBC, citing the Associated Press, those individuals would need to visit a US embassy or consulate to obtain an emergency travel document that would allow them to return home.
Source: International Business Times UK
