Total Divorce Blog

According to Forbes Magazine, a businessman, living in China, was required to pay $311,491 in back child support to obtain a United States passport; a musician seeking to perform overseas had to pay $46,000; and a man simply planning a vacation in the Dominican Republic paid $45,849.

The U.S. State Department denies passports to any non-custodial parent more than $2,500 behind in child support. This year, the Government started requiring passports for travel to and form Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and South America. States have collect at least $22.5 million thus far this year.

A spokesman for Washington’s Department of Child Support Enforcement said “it’s been amazing to see how people who owe back child support seem to be able to come up with good chunks of money when it involves needing their passport. Folks will do anything to get that passport, so it is a good collection tool”

Jeanette Dean, interviewed on CNN, said she was surprised to have just received $36,000 in unpaid child support. She said she expects to get another payment ten years from now, when her ex-husband needs to renew his passport. Actually, he’s been paying for a couple of months now, but we’ll have to wait and see if he continues to meet his commitments.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Child Custody Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.