No credit check for a passport.
Your credit card debt will follow you but may not be recorded on United Sates credit reports. You will still owe the debt but there may be no record of it.
By paying off the debt you owe
The outstanding balance is very simply the amount of debt that you have charged on the credit card. You owe that amount to the credit card company.
No. Credit card debt is unsecured and they can take nothing from you ever. They can only harrass and threaten and trick you into settling for a percntage of what you owe.
I owe credit cards companies in the US. Can they collect it in The Netherlands?
you run like hell to Mexico
Go bankrupt.
Depends on the debt. Usually if you owe things like child support, alimony, and taxes they most likely will deny you a passport. I have never heard of being denied a passport for bad credit card debt.
If the original debt has been "assigned" to a second organisation then you owe the second organisation (e.g. a debt collection agency that buys defaulted debt ... for about 14p in the pound) If the original debt has not been "assigned" then you owe the original creditor (i.e. the credit card company) It is a question that many credit card companies and the debt collectors they appoint from time to time are very cagey about. Ask them whether or not it has been assigned as you have the right to know this and also ask for a copy of the deed of assignment.
the debt dies with them... you owe nothing
Pay off the debt. Pay the debts that you owe. Don't you feel responsibility for the debts that you incur?