A while back there was a little piece for Escape Artist called (link http://offshorewealth.escapeartist.com/second-passport.htm) Having a Second Passport Can Save Your Life When Things Go Wrong.
It mentioned the USA’s Passport Denial Program as an example of how American citizens’ right to roam the globe rests on a bureaucratic whim. A reader, who claimed to be a former US consular officer, wrote in and disputed that such a program existed. He had never heard of it, he said.
Well to check out the facts, he only needed to Google ‘Passport Denial Program.’ Here is a direct link: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/fop/passport.htm
On the above link, you’ll see that it’s easy to get accepted onto this program. A government official simply has to state that you owe more than $2,500 in child support. No court hearing or anything like that. It’s not so easy to get off it again, however… what do you think of this statement:
“If your passport was denied for reasons of child support and you do not know which state submitted your case, or if you have never owed back child support, please consult this list for the contact information of the state where you currently reside, or your home of record if you are in the military and stationed overseas.”
Now, I’m a Dad myself and I would never suggest that fathers should not meet their moral obligations. Nor mothers for that matter. But we all know that sometimes things get messed up. Many people have similar names. A vindictive ex-spouse can lie. Or an evil low-level bureaucrat could easily upload somebody to this database just out of spite. There is no judicial oversight, no recourse, nobody you can sue for compensation if you lose out on a million dollar deal because you couldn’t renew your passport. The passage above clearly takes it for granted that American Citizens might get on to this Passport Denial Program without having the foggiest idea why.
The most worrying thing, however, is not the Official Passport Denial Program. I just selected it to write about it as a case in point. What’s much worse is the multitude of unofficial ways you can be denied a passport. Again, it’s just a matter of bureaucratic whim. Let’s say you get into a dispute with somebody and, through no fault of your own, it turns nasty. They can easily accuse you of criminal fraud or money laundering, or claim that you are trying to hide assets. Any business person with international interests or even a second home overseas is automatically presented as a ‘flight risk’ and required to hand in their passport, without ever having been found guilty of any crime.
Think it couldn’t happen to you? Really? That’s what everybody thinks… until one day, some relatively minor event takes a difficult turn. Then, things get out of hand very quickly. You are too busy trying to put out the fire, still confident that it can be resolved quickly. But these things have a tendency to escalate fast… and then they take months or years to resolve. If you are running an international business and you couldn’t travel for a year, what would happen?
All in all, having a second passport – preferably one that nobody else knows about – is a great backup plan. You hope you’ll never have to use it, but you can sleep more soundly at night knowing it’s there.
Bill Freeman