Where can I travel on a suspended American passport, assuming I've already left the US?

Upvote:4

Passports are reported lost and stolen every day, so you would imagine that online passport validity verification is performed as a matter of course. According to this article from 2014, this may not in fact be happening:

The international police organisation, Interpol, says its stolen and lost travel documents database is used on a routine basis by only a few countries, including America and the United Kingdom.

The database, which was introduced in 2001 following the September 11 terrorist attacks, contains the details of 40 million lost or stolen passports.

If this is still the case, it sounds like there is a good probability that online verification still isn't happening and that your suspended passport will not be flagged.

Since the airline may bear the cost of returning you to your departure airport if entry is denied, I would expect that if you check in at the airport, your passport is scanned and you are allowed to board, that it is very likely that the particular database storing your suspension is not being accessed. In that case, I would suspect that the same would be the case in your destination country.

Logically, it makes sense for this check only to be performed when attempting to exit or enter the US. If you are denied boarding on a flight heading for the US, then it is less likely that you will end up returning to the US and paying your outstanding dues.

Ultimately, I don't think anyone will be able to give you a definitive answer to your questions, other than educated guesses. Please report back!

Upvote:6

There are really two parts to this:

  1. Is your passport still valid? - It has not expired, but it has been suspended. This suspension is requested from the HHS to the US State Department. A suspended passport is no longer a valid travel document.

  2. Does it say why its suspended? - No real way to know this. Definitely the airlines don't know this. If your passport is ever scanned (electronically) then it will be flagged. The check is not done against the HHS database, it is done against the issuing agency - which is the State Department.

Now, on to your specific questions:

  1. Anytime your passport is digitally scanned - it is subject to being flagged.

  2. The jurisdiction where its flagged cannot arrest you for child support issues; unless there has been an international arrest warrant issued for you. They can only detain you because you are inadmissible; as you documents are not valid. Your identity will be recorded, you would most likely be fingerprinted and may face further sanction for that country.

  3. Will you be sent back to France? No. You would then be repatriated to the US, since there is no guarantee that anywhere else would accept you with invalid travel documents. As far as I am aware, the expenses are paid by the airline and not the repatriated individual.

Finally, I would use extreme caution - and would try to normalize my status rather than risk being flagged by each country because you are living there with invalid travel documents.

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