Accessing the U.S. Federal Parent Locator Service

IDCL-19-01

Publication Date: May 24, 2019
Current as of:

INTERNATIONAL DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

IDCL-19-01

DATE: May 24, 2019

TO: Hague Convention and Foreign Reciprocating Countries

SUBJECT: Accessing the U.S. Federal Parent Locator Service

Dear International Colleague:

This letter is to inform you how to access the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) through the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), the United States Central Authority for international child support under the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention and federal bilateral agreements. The FPLS, which is an assembly of electronic systems that OCSE operates to support its child support mission, can provide U.S. location information about a person who is sought for child support purposes.

Our federal statute, section 459A(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, provides that the U.S. Central Authority will “facilitate support [maintenance] enforcement in cases involving residents of the United States and residents of foreign reciprocating countries or foreign treaty countries” by notifying “foreign reciprocating countries and foreign treaty countries of the State of residence of individuals sought for support enforcement purposes, on the basis of information provided by the Federal Parent Locator Service.”

The procedure for requesting location assistance from the FPLS: The Central Authority of a foreign reciprocating or treaty country should submit a locate request through our secure web form .

Please include the following information in the request:

  1. In the first part of the web form, the name, contact information, and country of the Central Authority official who is submitting the locate request.
  2. In the box marked “Please tell us your concern,” include:
    1. A statement that this is a request to locate a person for child support purposes
    2. The requesting Central Authority’s case number
    3. The name of the person who is sought, including alternative spellings and aliases
    4. The person’s date of birth
    5. The person’s U.S. Social Security number, if known
    6. Any other information that may be relevant to locating the person

Other inquiries to the U.S. Central Authority: We strongly encourage Central Authority officials to use the secure web form to contact the U.S. Central Authority about other questions or case processing concerns. Other means of contacting OCSE include:

ocseinternational@acf.hhs.gov
Fax: +1 202.401.5655
Telephone: +1 202.401.5722

Thank you for your efforts to ensure that children involved in international cases receive child support.

Please contact OCSE at ocseinternational@acf.hhs.gov if you have questions.

Sincerely,

Scott M. Lekan
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement