Back child support can block passport

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002 | 10:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A new state regulation that will stop deadbeat parents from getting a passport if they owe more than $5,000 in back child support went into effect today.

State Welfare Administrator Nancy Ford held a brief public hearing televised between Carson City and Las Vegas on the regulation, but nobody showed up to testify for or against it. She then approved the new rule.

The state already has been able to take advantage of a federal law that allows it to notify the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement of the names of deadbeat parents who owe more than $5,000. The federal agency then informs the State Department not to issue a passport to the individual.

The action today was to set state-specific guidelines on how much of the debt must be paid before a passport can be issued. Ford said Nevada will require parents to pay the entire amount first. Most states are following the same policy, she said.

A passport cannot be revoked for exceeding the $5,000. But renewal can be stopped on the passport, which is good for 10 years, Leland Sullivan, head of the child support division for the state, said.

The state already has been able to use the federal law to collect in two recent cases, Sullivan said. In one case a man paid $14,000 to wipe out his back debt so he could get a passport to go to France to visit an ailing mother. In another, the individual paid $9,000.

Sullivan said this was "another enforcement tool" the state can use to collect delinquent child support.