Deadbeat Parent Denied Plane Boarding

Did you know that a parent who is behind in his/her child support can lose their passport? That may be news to a lot of people, and others may have vaguely heard of such a sanction, but never actually seen it in real life.

The truth is that federal law has long provided for both the revocation of passports and the refusal to renew them for a parent who owes more than $2500 in child support arrears. And at Graham.law, we’ve seen Child Support Services take the steps to start a passport revocation in a small handful of cases over the years. It’s not common, but if the threat is made in a case and the obligor with arrears relies upon a passport, it’s a meaningful threat.

Per 42 U.S. Code §652:

(k) Denial of passports for nonpayment of child support

(1)If the Secretary receives a certification by a State agency in accordance with the requirements of section 654(31) of this title that an individual owes arrearages of child support in an amount exceeding $2,500, the Secretary shall transmit such certification to the Secretary of State for action (with respect to denial, revocation, or limitation of passports) pursuant to paragraph (2).

(2)The Secretary of State shall, upon certification by the Secretary transmitted under paragraph (1), refuse to issue a passport to such individual, and may revoke, restrict, or limit a passport issued previously to such individual.

Note that missing one month will typically not result in losing one’s passport – it takes arrears of at least $2500, which is usually two or more months of missed support.

As indicated, while this sanction has been on the books for years (apparently since 1996), it’s not widely utilized. While the State Department has declined to reissue passports to those with arrears, it has rarely revoked passports. And not many parents with arrears were reported to the feds to begin with, so this sanction has been relatively toothless.

U.S. Passport

This is about to change. According to news reports this week, the State Department will commence revoking US passports for parents with substantial child support arrears. They are going to focus first on those who owe more than $100,000 in back support, which apparently numbers a whopping 2700 passport holders.

But that’s just for starters – the next phase will be to revoke passports for anyone with arrears that exceed the statutory threshold of $2500. And that is going to open the floodgates, with likely tens of thousands (or more) obligors caught up in that.

And if the purpose of publicizing the crackdown was to induce people to pay up, it’s apparently working. Per The Guardian article, the State Department said 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”.

Note that the passport revocation provision only applies to child support arrears, and not to spousal support or alimony.

Revoking passports is just one weapon in the fight against support arrears, and for parents who do not travel abroad, not a tremendously scary threat. But as highlighted in our Colorado Family Law Guide article on enforcement of support arrears, deadbeat parents also face much more common remedies, including:

  • Suspension of driver’s licenses
  • Suspension of professional/vocational licenses
  • Seizure of tax refunds
  • Income assignments (i.e., wage garnishment).
  • Liens against bank accounts and real property
  • Contempt of court, with the threat of incarceration.

The takeaway? Address your arrears before they reach an unmanageable amount you have no hope of repaying. And if your finances have changed so you can no longer afford to pay the ordered support, don’t sit back and let the arrears grow; instead, file a motion to modify child support. Even if you have to pay a lawyer to do it, it’s cheaper than the alternative of facing the consequences for arrears.

Award-Winning Southern Colorado Child Support Lawyers

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