If you owe back payments in child support, be aware the U.S. may soon revoke your passport. This new policy, slated to begin tomorrow, will first target parents who owe more than $100,000 in child support. But it will soon be expanded to apply those who owe more than $2,500 in back child support payments.
The U.S. will start revoking passports this week for parents who owe $100,000 or more in child support and soon will expand the policy. https://t.co/dEC8CFithF
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 7, 2026
The department told The Associated Press on Thursday that the revocations would begin Friday and be focused on those who owe $100,000 or more. That would apply to about 2,700 American passport holders, according to figures supplied to the State Department by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The revocation program, plans for which were first reported by the AP in February, soon will be greatly expanded to cover parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support — the threshold set by a little-enforced 1996 law, the State Department said.
It was not clear on Thursday how many passport holders owe more than $2,500 because HHS is still collecting data from state agencies that track the figures, but it could encompass many more thousands of people, officials said.
Will this get parents to make good on the child support they owe? We'll see.
Dems are coming out in support of everyone behind on child support
— Gimme3Steps (@TheSouthGAJohn) May 7, 2026
Probably.
Revoking passports, after they just signed a law requiring a passport to vote. They're on their way to revoke your voting rights lol
— Curse (@curseNA2) May 8, 2026
The solution to this is to pay your child support on time.
You'll think people who owe $100,000 in child support money have a passport. They have bigger issues to fry than traveling 😂
— Dr. O (@BlacB) May 7, 2026
Or they don't care about paying child support and are traveling, instead.
A lot of people gleefully cheering this on, but they won’t stop at child support. They’re going to follow this same model to start doing the same to those with student loan and medical debt next. Bet. https://t.co/JEnsk16mq1
— Cannie Oakley: Local Cryptid (@Staceballs) May 7, 2026
Then pay your bills. Problem solved.
Good.
— meg | 🌼🫶 (@rosecoloredmeg_) May 7, 2026
When I worked at CSE I would get calls from people who were upset that they couldn’t get a passport because they owed CS & it was gonna ruin their trip. How do you have money for a trip but haven’t paid CS in months? We could prevent you from getting one or (🧵) https://t.co/abRORJ0CaO
From renewing but if you had an active passport it couldn’t be revoked. I literally had a woman call upset because she wanted to go to EGYPT but she owed over $25k. How do you have EGYPT MONEY but not child support money?
— meg | 🌼🫶 (@rosecoloredmeg_) May 7, 2026
We're sure there will be a legal challenge to this, and we'll see what the courts say when those challenges come.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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