NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!The U.S. State Department is set to begin revoking the passports of thousands of Americans who owe substantial unpaid child support, according to officials.Revocations will begin Friday and will initially focus on parents who owe $100,000 or more in past-due child support. According to a State Department release on Thursday, federal law allows anyone with unpaid court-ordered support of more than $2,500 to be denied a passport, or to have their existing passport revoked. State Department guidelines state that if a passport has been revoked it cannot be used to travel, even after the debt has been paid. State Department to Pull Additional Passports from Parents Who Owe Child Support”Eligibility for new passports will only be restored once child support debt has been paid to the relevant child support enforcement agencies and the individual no longer is delinquent, according to HHS records,” said they. Affected individuals must work directly with the state child enforcement agency where the debt was owed. HHS must update its records to allow the State Department to process a new document. This process can take up to two weeks. State Department officials say that such individuals may only be eligible for a limited validity passport for direct returns to the United States, until HHS verifies the repayment of the debt. The State Department puts American families first with our passport process, they said.The passport refusal program has been around for decades and used by federal and states officials to enforce past due child support obligations. The Administration for Children and Families states that state child support agencies submit cases to federal officials, who then forward them to the State Department.
