On May 7, 2026, the State Department told the Associated Press that it would begin revoking, the next day, the U.S. passports of parents who owe $100,000 or more in unpaid child support, about 2,700 passport holders according to figures from the Department of Health and Human Services. The department said the program would soon be greatly expanded to cover parents who owe more than $2,500, the threshold set by a little-enforced 1996 law that President Clinton signed.
What changes is the enforcement method. Until then, the penalty applied only to people who applied to renew a passport. Under the new policy, HHS will tell the State Department about all past-due child support above $2,500, and parents in that group with passports will have them revoked. A revoked passport cannot be used for travel, a new one is available only once the debt is paid, and people abroad at the time must get an emergency travel document from an embassy or consulate to return. AP reported it was unclear how many people owe more than $2,500, because HHS was still collecting state data, but officials said it could encompass “many more thousands of people.”
The department frames the program as enforcement of existing law. “We are expanding a commonsense practice that has been proven effective at getting those who owe child support to pay their debt,” said Mora Namdar, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs. The department said states have collected some $657 million in arrears through the program since it began in earnest in 1998, and that hundreds of parents resolved their arrears after AP first reported the plan in February.
The open question is scale. At the $2,500 threshold, the program could reach parents whose arrears are modest, and the department has not said how many people that would be.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry said the $2,500 threshold would sweep in “millions” of parents; AP reported that the number was unknown and that officials said it could encompass “many more thousands.” It said prior administrations revoked passports only in extreme cases after IRS flagging; AP reported that the penalty previously applied when people applied to renew. It cited 22 U.S.C. § 2714a, which the sources do not support; AP and The Hill identify the authority as a 1996 law signed by President Clinton. It dated AP's report to May 8; AP reported on May 7 that revocations would begin May 8. Unsourced passages tying the policy to State Department layoffs, a California Medicaid deferral, Trump-portrait passports, an FBI raid and a Fulton County subpoena were removed.