Where can I travel on a suspended American passport, assuming I've already left the US?
I am a US citizen living in Europe with a valid long stay visa in an EU country. My US passport was marked suspended in the US Health and Human Services database for non-payment of support, but my passport (the physical document) says it is valid for another ten years.
My question is:
If I fly from Spain or France to Thailand, would I be allowed to enter Thailand as a tourist, for a short stay? I assume I need to carry with me a purchased return flight ticket. Would Thai officials in Thailand check the validity of my passport in the US Health and Human Services database? Or, would they instead check either their own database or only the physical passport document for validity?
A second part to that question, if the answer is they would not allow me in:
What would they likely do with me? If I have a return ticket with me, paid for, to France or Spain, wouldn't they bundle me back on that flight? Or would they instead detain me and put me on a flight to the USA (presumably at their expense)?
An even broader, more helpful, and potentially harder question to answer is:
Which countries would allow me to land and enter, and would consider my passport valid because they don't check its validity in the US Health and Human Services database or similar databases?
Thanks!
Best Answer
There are really two parts to this:
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.
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:
Anytime your passport is digitally scanned - it is subject to being flagged.
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.
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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Can I travel with a suspended passport?
Answer: You may travel with your U.S. passport unless you received notice that it has been revoked. As a U.S. citizen, you need to depart and re-enter the United States using your valid U.S. passport.Can I go outside US with expired passport?
Recently expired U.S. passports cannot be used to travel from the United States to an international destination or to travel to a foreign country for any length of stay longer than an airport connection en route to the United States or to a United States territory.How do I get an emergency passport?
The following documents will be required:Can I reenter the US with a passport about to expire?
Answer: U.S. citizens may re-enter the United States up to the day their passport expires. You should have no issues boarding your flight home using your current passport.I Finally Got My U.S. Passport: Unboxing |Chit Chat | Where To Travel This Year?
More answers regarding where can I travel on a suspended American passport, assuming I've already left the US?
Answer 2
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!
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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