Jamaicans with United States (US) citizenship who owe outstanding child support payments are being encouraged to urgently rectify their status or risk having their US passports cancelled, leaving them unable to travel.The US Department of State began cancelling the US passports of people with outstanding child support payments on May 8.While passport revocations for unpaid child support of more than US$2,500 have been permitted under 30-year old federal legislation, the State Department had in the past acted only when someone applied to renew their travel document or sought other consular services. So far, the State Department has focused on people who owe US$100,000 or more. Individuals owing that amount could have their US passports cancelled.According to the State Department, if an individual’s passport is revoked because they owe US$2,500 or more in child support payments, it will take more than two weeks to have the passport reinstated after the outstanding amount is paid.The State Department further indicated that holders of revoked US passports who are overseas should contact the state where the child support is owed to make payment. The department said that once payment is made, affected persons can contact a US embassy or consulate for passport application procedures.Affected persons may be issued a temporary travel document to return to the US until verification is made that the outstanding payment has been settled.Under the law established in 1996, the Child Support Enforcement Passport Denial Programme originally applied to individuals owing more than US$5,000.The programme is federally administered by the Office of Child Support Enforcement. In the 2024 financial year, the programme served 11.6 million cases and collected US$26.7 billion in child support back payments.Part of the funds collected goes towards reimbursing the federal government where families receive federal assistance. The balance is distributed to the affected families.Immigration attorney Winston Tucker told The Gleaner that while there is no provision covering green card holders, they could also be affected.“If you owe outstanding child support payment you may not apply for US citizenship unless the outstanding amount is satisfied,” he said.He further advised that Jamaicans who have had child support payment orders issued against them by a Jamaican court could have those orders enforced by a US court once an application for enforcement is made.“The payment of child support is considered important and immigrants need to ensure that they are making their payments and do not have outstanding back amounts,” he said, stressing that Jamaican fathers could be impacted by the crackdown if they owe child support payments.editorial@gleanerjm.com