Are you behind on child support payments and need to leave the U.S.? You may have heard of people who were denied passports on such a basis. And the question on your mind might be: can you get a passport if you owe child support? Like with most legal matters, this is a gray area, and you may or may not be eligible for passport approval. Let’s find out where the cards will fall in your case:
Can you get a passport if you owe child support?
When you apply for a passport, you include your identification documents, e.g., your most recent passport or proof of identification. The State Department uses the information in these documents to check if you have outstanding court orders or any reason you should not get a passport.
Along this line, the State Department works with child support enforcement agencies to enforce parental responsibilities. If you should be paying child support and have not been holding up your end of the deal, the relevant enforcement agency can forward your name to the state department. If this happens, you cannot apply for a new passport nor renew your current one, as you will be on the “defaulter” list. So, once you apply for a passport, the State Department will check your status and thus decide if you can get a passport.
So, can you get a passport if you owe child support? Not every parent who owes child support is ineligible to get a passport. It depends on how much you owe. Per the current laws, only parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support payments face this challenge. The State Department abides by the child support passport denial program. Where a parent owes more than $2,500 in back child support, they receive a pre-offset notice. Here, you get details about how much you owe and the steps you can take to offset the amount.
Can you get a passport if you owe back child support? At the same time you receive the pre-offset notice, the State Department gets a passport denial notice. So, you will not get a passport in most cases until you have offset the outstanding amount. Each time you apply, your application will get rejected, and the state will issue a notice indicating that the rejection owes to back child support. It will also request you confer with the applicable child support agency to understand how to get a passport.
How to get a passport while owing back child support
If you owe less than $2,500 in child support arrears, you can get a passport in the standard way. You’d need to present your most recent passport or another form of identification to start the process. And with Travel Visa Pro, you can get your passport application submitted and expedited within a few days. Because your name will not be in the passport denial program, you should not face any hurdles.
However, if you owe more than $2,500 in child support arrears, you must get your name off the passport denial program before applying for a passport. And you can do this by:
- Getting the case deleted: Doing this requires you to go through legal processes with the custodial parent,
- Paying off the back support such that you owe $0, or
- Getting the state to submit a name removal request.
Can you get a passport if you owe child support but you are currently paying it? If you do not pay off the entire amount, you will still be in the passport denial program. However, you can always present a solution to the child support enforcement agency. And if they agree to your terms, they can get your name off the list even if you have arrears.
Can you get a passport if you owe child support for an adult child? You must get your name cleared from the list before applying for a passport. Then you must wait about three weeks before the state department clears your name. You can then apply for a passport. Travel Visa Pro can expedite your passport application and get you a new one within days!