State Department to Revoke Passports of Parents Owing $2,500 or More in Child Support

U.S. State Department began revoking passports from parents who owe child support on May 8, 2026. The department will initially prioritize roughly 2,700 American passport holders who owe $100,000 or more.

Revocations will later expand to include parents who owe more than $2,500. The Trump administration is moving to more strictly enforce a 1996 law that gives the State Department authority to revoke passports over unpaid child support. Prior to May 8, 2026, the passport penalty applied only to Americans applying for new passports if they owed child support.

The State Department is partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services on this enforcement. Eligibility for international travel will be restored only after outstanding child support debt is paid. S.

” “The State Department is putting American families first through our passport process,” the press release stated. Parents who have outstanding debt of more than $2,500 in child support are subject to passport revocation, according to the BBC. The $2,500 threshold has been part of federal law since 1996.

U.S. Census. 5 million delinquent parents who owe a total of $114 billion in child support.

The $114 billion child support debt figure is from 2018, according to the Office of Child Support Enforcement. Approximately 2,700 American passport holders owe $100,000 or more in child support, the Associated Press reported. The scale of delinquency has prompted the current enforcement push more than a quarter-century after the underlying law took effect.

The policy change ends a period in which many parents with existing passports faced no immediate travel consequences for unpaid obligations.