A child who is born in the United States of America automatically becomes a citizen of the United States by birth. The prospect of traveling to the US on a visit visa and giving birth there is one that is oftentimes attractive for would-be mothers.
In most cases, the strategy of traveling to give birth in US on visit visa involves acquiring a visa and traveling before your pregnancy can be deemed unsafe for air travel. And since a visit visa allows you to stay for as long as six months, many women travel for birth tourism as early as within three to four months of their pregnancy.
However, according to US Immigration Lawyer at The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein Brad Bernstein, this could also prove to be a very costly strategy.
“If you give birth in the United States you will be violating your visitor’s visa. You visitor’s visa will not be renewed. You may also be stopped at the airport when traveling and there is no appeal for the denial of a tourist visa,” he said.
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The basis of the visa denial is that you lied on your traveling intent for the purposes of engaging in birth tourism.
“If you are entering the United States for the purposes of giving birth in US on visit visa, that is a violation of your visitor’s visa and you will be subject to having your visitor’s visa revoked and getting banned from entering the US especially if you take government assistance,” he said.
On the other hand, said Mr. Bernstein, you can use the tourist visa to go to the United States for the necessary medical attention. “If you happen to give birth through this process, you will have done no wrong as giving birth wasn’t your actual reason for travel,” he said.
