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The US State Department will begin revoking the US passports of thousands of parents who owe a significant amount of unpaid child support. The department told The Associated Press on Thursday that the revocations would begin Friday and be focused on those who owe USD 100,000 or more. That would apply to about 2,700 American passport holders, according to figures supplied to the State Department by the Department of Health and Human Services. The revocation programme, plans for which were first reported by the AP in February, soon will be greatly expanded to cover parents who owe more than USD 2,500 in unpaid child support - the threshold set by a little-enforced 1996 law, the State Department said. It was not clear on Thursday how many passport holders owe more than USD 2,500 because HHS is still collecting data from state agencies that track the figures, but it could encompass many more thousands of people, officials said. Until this week, only those who applied to renew their ...
Right to hold a passport and travel abroad is an integral facet of personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the Delhi High Court has said. When any action of the authorities impinges on such a right, the court asserted, it must be reasonable and be in accordance with the principles of natural justice. Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav passed the order while setting aside the Centre's decision to impound the passport of Yogesh Raheja, erstwhile Director of Raheja Developers, for failing to disclose the pendency of an FIR against him at the time of applying for renewal. The order impounding the petitioner's passport was passed by the authorities on January 17, 2025, and his appeal against the decision was rejected by the appellate authority on March 25, 2025. The petitioner's counsel said, as per a 2019 office memorandum by the Ministry of External Affairs, mere registration of an FIR did not amount to pendency of criminal proceedings for issuance of a passport
A Delhi court has ordered framing of charges against the Uphaar fire tragedy convict Sushil Ansal in a separate case for allegedly concealing criminal cases and submitting false declarations to renew a passport. Ansal was booked by the crime branch of Delhi Police in 2019, and he was accused of furnishing false information, as he failed to declare his conviction in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire tragedy. Chief Judicial Magistrate Shriya Agrawal of Patiala House Courts, in a November 28 order, held that "prima facie, there is sufficient material" to proceed against Ansal for offences under Sections 420 (cheating), 177 (furnishing false information to a public servant), 181 (making false statement on oath) IPC and Section 12 (offenses related to passports) of the Passports Act, relisting the matter for formal framing of charges on January 13, 2026. The court said Ansal "has consciously concealed the details of criminal cases pending against him as also the order of conviction" in the swo
When Ash Lazarus Orr went to renew his passport in early January, the transgender organiser figured it would be relatively routine. But more than two months on, Orr is waiting to get a new passport with a name change and a sex designation reflecting who he is. The delay has prevented him from travelling overseas to receive gender-affirming care this month in Ireland since he refuses to get a passport that lists an inaccurate sex designation. Orr blames the delay on President Donald Trump, who on the day he took office issued an executive order banning the use of the X marker as well as the changing of gender markers. The order says a person is male or female and it rejects the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. This is preventing me from having an accurate identification and the freedom to move about the country as well as internationally, said Orr, who is among seven plaintiffs five transgender Americans and two nonbinary plaintiffs
Anyone found using a forged passport or visa for entering, staying or exiting India will be punished with a jail term of up to seven years and a fine to the extent of Rs 10 lakh if the new immigration bill is approved by Parliament. The legislation, piloted by the Union Home Ministry, also provides for mandatory reporting of information about foreigners by hotels, universities, other educational institutions, hospitals and nursing homes to enable tracking of overstaying foreigners. All international airlines and ships will also be required to submit at a port or place in India the passenger and crew manifest, the advance information of passengers and crew on board of such aircraft, vessel or other mode of transport. "Whoever knowingly uses or supplies a forged or fraudulently obtained passport or other travel document or visa for entering into India or staying in or exiting from India, shall be punishable with an imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years, but m