Passport Troubles, Rape, and a Fractured Skull
 

Good morning and Happy Holidays

Can you please visit this link and tell me what can be done on why our government has denied our disabled, people who can not work and have fallen behind on their child support their right to travel. It's not our fault we became disabled. I stopped what police called a possible rape (since the women were too afraid to talk) and I suffered a fractured skull. Now I can't work, I soon won't even be able to go to Canada which is only 5 minutes away. I really hope you have something to say, scream if you like at our government, especially Hillary Clinton

For some reason when I put in the URL it appears twice, and he first one doesn't work

http://passporttroubles.com/

Thank you in advance. Mark H. Baker

...And you're how far delinquent on your child support?

I pay ever month, it's deducted every month from my SSD check, go check out my blog to find out all info

Well, I don't wish to appear unsympathetic - but you don't mention what your disability is.

Obviously there are some disabilities (such as being quadriplegic) that would make working close to impossible ( although there are companies that do specialize in employing people with serious disabilities).

But I'm not sure what sort of injuries a fractured skull almost 10 years ago would cause that would make it impossible for you to ever do any sort of work - even something computer based - or telemaketing or similar. (If you could put together that web site wouldn't some sort of computer based job be an option?)

Obviously if you're going to leave the country you have some degree of mobility and based on the content of the web site you have not suffered any mental impairment.

So - I suppose I'm concerned about why you don't put as much effort into working and paying child support as making complaints about the government's standard steps to encourage non-paying parents to support their children.

I guess the goverment probably feels that if you have the means to apply for a passport and take trips then perhaps you should be applying those funds to your child support. I, like NYtraveler don't mean to be unsympathetic I just wonder where your priorities lie.

interesting 1st post!

i'm always curious how people even find Fodor's to make a strange one & only contribution to the forum

I'm a bit confused after reading your link. I assume you owe child support from a previous divorce, and that is why you can't get a passport. I understand that you were injured, which impaired your ability to work - but I don't see what the disability of your current wife is, and why she can't work... I know many states are seriously going after people that owe child support since many parents (both male and female) had to raise their children on their own, and I frankly applaud those efforts whole-heartedly. I got a little confused with your explanation on why you're behind on your child support, but I guess I don't understand why your wife can't work to help you (as a family now) through this..... I do think that you need to work out the child support issue before you consider traveling, because I do not think that rule is going to change....

I pay every month, it's deducted monthly from my SSD check, go check out my blog to find out all info

I've read your blog and agree with nytraveler. If you can put this much effort into getting a passport, you can put as much effort into paying your child support.

You were able to go to Sen. Clinton's office, you were able to go to court, you should be able to go to a job.

Those children need to be put ahead of a 'nice vaction' with your current wife.

Most states, and including New York do not require a second wife to pay her husbands pass child support. As for how I'm able to go on vacations - my wife works.

Dealing with the medical concerns, every doctor I see, including the SSA considers me totally disabled.

Believe me - I'm not happy with not working. Fractured skulls are serious business and has really taken a toll on what I can and can not do.

Please make sure you read my above blog link before asking any question, or making assumptions, and thank you for all that do. Mark

I'm sorry - my questions still stand.

I don;t see how you can be healthy enough to go on a vacation (which involves movement, all types of lights and a variety of situations) but cannot do the same if it involved working.

Obviously you have some computer skills. And there are MANY, MANY computer-based or phone based jobs that can even be done from home.

I agree that your current wife should not have to pay support to your children with your former wife. But, frankly, I think you should be. (You're not paying anything at the moment - the rest of us are - as well as supporting you.)

It just seems so odd that your disabilities affect only your ability to work and not your ability to travel (which I think would be much more physically demanding).

Separately, I don;t know how PTSD comes into the picture. Assuming the initial incident was so traumatic (and I've been there) it can be relieved with medications (short-term) and therapy (somewhat longer term) and certainly doesn't have to be a long-term complaint. (It took me about 8 months to recover from the aftereffects of a plane crash. And I've been working regularly - sometimes as much as 90 hours a week - and including hundreds of flights - since the incident almost 20 years ago.)

You need to take your self-pitying energies elswhere instead of trolling on this board. Sorry, but you clearly have enough incentive, imagination, insight, and energy to get a job and pay child support.

ncgrrrl - When it's cold outside, I stay indoors. When it rains outside, I stay indoors. Every time the barometric pressure changes it causes me a lot of pain in my skull, and it usually still affects me even if I stay inside.

Oh one more thing, I can only for very short ( some times mintues view a monitor)

Well, not to denigrate Canada, but you've got plenty to see without a passport.

You can always view the falls from the US side.

I don't understand. You are looking for public support because you cannot get a PASSPORT, not that your child support payment is over $14,000.

If you cannot tolerate florescent lighting and suffer from vertigo, and cannot go to the supermarket, then how can you travel?? Traveling is exhausting.

I would be more concerned with getting your child support straightened out with the state than looking for a passport to travel.

I'm sorry you were injured but I have no sympathy for your present situation.

I've read the blog, read all the posts here. I even dug up a copy of the Constitution. I still haven't found 'right to travel' listed anywhere. It is a luxury, not a right.

I sympathize with your situation as I have family members (plural) who are totally disabled and on SSI + SSA.

The laws in place that don't permit issuing a passport to anyone in arrears on child support payments makes sense, does it not? I haven't heard any argument against those laws.

You are free to travel anywhere within the US, so your 'right to travel' is not, in fact, being denied, so you don't win any points with me for that issue.

While I don't personally like Sen. Clinton, I see no reason to scream at her in this case.

Your main beef seems to be that since you are disabled you do not have the means to get ahead on child support. OK, I get that part.

If you feel the amount of child support is inappropriate then you can take your case to a family court judge. If the judge has refused to lower the amount you owe you will have a hard time convincing a public internet forum that we should disagree.

If traveling internationally is so important to you and your current wife then you two can decide to use $ from her income to pay your back child support. That is a choice you apparently have decided you don't wish to make.

My salary alone does not pay enough to afford the type of travel I wish to do. It is my wife's income that supports our leisure travel. That is a choice we have made.

If you can't work, then you need to go back to court to have the child support order amended. I hope your child(ren) don't acually rely on support from you.

I'll bet that if your previous wife has remarried, her current husband will be contributing to the support of your children.

I'm honestly very surprised that not one read how I suffered a fractured skull, nor think that I'm being treated wrongly by our government.

I also believe you might want to consider reading the link I have post on my blog, and maybe google a fractured skull and read what others have to deal with daily

I am curious. With a big beautiful country that includes exerything from deserts to beaches and everything in between, why do you need a passport?

Hello Barbara, would you be surprized to hear that my children age 22, and 16 get along with me, and show no anger towards my problem, nor have they ever said anything about why I don't pay my ex.

My ex recently had a problem with my daughter and I heard a knock on the door and found my daughter crying becasue she was kicked out of her mom's home, my daughter did go home after a month staying with me, and this isn't the first time it's happened.

I love my children, and 5 minutes after they leave my home I miss them.

My ex wife did remarry, the guy divorced her 2 years latter

Hello Annabel, thanks for not being nasty with asking a question. Sould I be restricted at all for stopping a rape, and suffering a fractured skull? Plus I'm quite sure, and it's just my opinion - but I believe if given the chance you and everyoen else would visit an Island instead of staying state side

No public official is going to intervene in a matter involving unpaid child support.

You might try working out a payment plan with the court so they will remove whatever designation is keeping you from getting a passport.

You can travel to Canada (by car) without a passport, so no problem there.

If you're disabled, don't have financial means to pay back the child support, you need a good lawyer. Many of them do the pro-bono work (handling cases for free). Maybe start with the local bar association if you can't find one.

No need to post a political thread for or against Clinton.

Sorry just trying to understand the situation. If you are so disabled, how can you go thru the airports, which includes waiting for your luggage and schlepping it, going thru customs, and getting around all under florescent lighting. I have stood on customs lines for quite some time and have stood at luggage carosels for what seems like an eternity - all under florescent lighting. Island travel is quite expensive and many times requiring a change of planes. How is this possible is your condition??

If everything that happened to you happened while married to the mother of your children, you wouldn't worry about passports at all. You'd worry about feeding and clothing them while keeping a safe roof over their heads.

The only thing different is you are no longer married to the children's mother.

You still have a responsibility to the kids, it just harder to keep two safe roofs (rooves?) over their heads. You and your ex-wife brought these kids into the world, they didn't ask to come. Look around your community and see other parents struggling to keep their kids fed/clothed/shelter with all sorts of bad situations. Yet they aren't complaing 'the government won't let me travel' -- they are doing what is needed to provide for the kids.

Lots of people are struggling to make ends meet. Make a list of your priorities, then double check to make sure the list is in the right order.

Per the US State Dept.:
"As early as summer 2008, all travelers who enter or depart the U.S. by any means (land, sea or air) will be required to have a valid passport, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST, Border Crossing Card or other acceptable document.


The State Department also intends to make available in spring 2008 a limited-use Passport Card, specifically for land and sea travel from these neighboring countries. In addition, several states including Washington, Vermont and New York are creating an Enhanced Driver’s License that will fulfill these new identification requirements. Ample notice of the exact date of implementation will be provided to ensure travelers can obtain the appropriate documents."

I too, however, think this is rather besides the point in comparison to other priorities it appears you need to take care of.

Sorry, I have no sympathy at all for anyone who does not pay child support.
Regardless of how you cracked your skull, if you want to travel..pay your overdue child support.
I would think if you and the kids are so close, that this would be more important to you than getting over the border to Canada.

Talk to a soldier about disabilities..maybe you can get some perspective.

Deadbeats who don't pay their child support SHOULD be allowed to leave the country. They just shouldn't be allowed back in.

Hey Scarlett, I am ex military. Did my time in the Air Force, and DBCal - your brought a smile to my face, thanks

mark772, I'm amazed you missed the part where I said you need to GO BACK TO COURT to get your support order amended. Why don't you do that? If you are in fact disabled, the court will recognise that.

You're no longer paying support for the 22yr old, so you're only behind with support for one child. It's very common for teenage girls to disagree with their mothers. If they say nothing nasty to you, then their mother has done/is doing a good job. It's a pity you seem to think you should discuss your financial support of your younger child with them at all, though. Pity you're trying to make your ex look bad when you are the one not meeting your obligations.

Mark, I'm not sure what your point is here. The requirement that you have a passport to enter Canada by car has been postponed, so you have more than a year to do that before you need to get a passport. And if it is tropical islands you want, you can visit Hawaii.

You haven't found a sympathetic ear here, even among this group of travelers. We are all trying to tell you that paying your child support obligations comes before spending money on foreign travel.

I am sorry that you were injured in 1998, but you can't blame Hillary or any other politician for your situation. You need to go back to the court and get a workable payment plan and take care of that $14K. And I don't know that NY law requires your wife to contribute, but she must have known about this when she married you, and I think she has a moral obligation to help if she is working and has the money. That comes before spending money on travel. Sorry.

*I'm not your lawyer. I'm not licensed in NY, and I'm not a benefits attorney. You are not my client and I'm creating NO attorney-client relationship with you.*

I read your website, and I'm sorry for your injury and I'm sorry for your current troubles. It appears that you successfully navigated the SSA in order to get full disability payments (Folks: to the SSA, if they pay you, they consider you to have a full disability).

It also appeared that your original child support payment plan was to pay $168 of each SSA check for child support, and this agreement was not processed or administered correctly. As a result, you had amounts far in excess of the $168 deducted, leaving you an insufficient portion of your SSA check to live off of. At this point, you went to court and had a hardship exemption claimed, which brought the monthly payment down to $25 per month. As a result, the NY officials consider you delinquent in your child support payments, even though it appears some agency agreed to the reduction in the monthly support obligation.

You need to get a lawyer (pro bono) and get a hearing with the NY child support authorities. You should gather all records about whether or not you had a written agreement to the $168 original support amount, all records showing amounts in excess of this were withheld, and all records showing that the support amount was reduced because of your disability. You will need to determine, if the additional amounts were improperly withheld from your SSA check, whether or not they were properly credited later on (i.e., did the overpayment somehow reduce the amounts you owed later?). I can't determine from your website how you came to a reduced support arrangement, but are still considered delinquent.

You should try to get a lawyer pro bono - reach out to local NY law schools and veteran's organizations to see if someone is willing and able to assist you.

I'm sorry you can't get a passport, but in the grand scheme of things, you can still travel - just domestically. Finally, you are able to work partially while on SSA benefits - you cannot cross certain income levels (under ~$12k per year) and continue to draw SSA benefits, but if you had to, you could take on some work to pay down any arrearage that the NY agencies believe remain.

Mark - I had to post to let you know that I admire you for having helped someone in trouble. Unfortunately, it is increasingly rare for people to become involved in that way. Please take the advice given above and find a lawyer on a pro bono basis to see if you can't go back to court to clean this up. That will likely be easier than trying to get an exemption from the law. Best wishes to you for a full recovery.

Mark's injury is a few weeks shy of 10 years old a full recovery may not be possible.

I am glad you stepped up to stop a rape and I would hope anyone on the site would do the same, however I agree with everyone else that child support must be paid! I live in Canada and love going to the U.S. You guys have the greatest country with lots to do.

I can't imagine spending money on travel when I owed child support, period! Everything else aside, why should you be vacationing when you have not met your responsibilities to your children?

elsiemoo, you read my mind. The OP's first concern s/b dealing with his child support issues, then he can plan a vacation.

"When it's cold outside, I stay indoors. When it rains outside, I stay indoors. Every time the barometric pressure changes it causes me a lot of pain in my skull, and it usually still affects me even if I stay inside."


And you're wanting to travel to Canada -- why????? Sounds like a trip to hell if you are as bad as you say. Does it never rain, get cold, or change barometric pressure in Canada? I had no idea.

And I love the idea that "the law doesn't require" the current wife to help pay child support, but it is fine for you not to pay it and let her salary go towards foreign travel? Seems like you're taking full advantage of every "letter" of the law, yet get upset when it doesn't work to your own advantage.

Sorry, you're not getting much sympathy here.