guam birth tourism

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Birth Tourism: 31 Countries Giving Birthright Citizenship

Last updated October 28, 2020

Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If you have spent any time on our blog, you probably already know that there are a number of ways to get a second passport , depending on how badly you want one.

We recently discussed 13 citizenships you could get rather easily by using one of the oldest tricks in the book: marrying a foreigner .

However, obtaining second citizenship for your children and future generations is just as important – if not more so. 

For years, surveys such as The Best Places to Be Born , the Better Life Index , the Human Development Report , and many Quality o f Life Indices have chronicled where children are likely to have it best.

I recently discussed this in my article on tips for parents-to-be , suggesting that parents who apply our principles of international diversification practice something called “ birth tourism .”

If you live in the United States, you have probably heard the term “anchor baby” – when a non-citizen gives birth to a child in a country with birthright citizenship to gain residence and citizenship advantages – positioned in a bad light. However, there is nothing stopping you from using the same principle to give your kids a head start in other countries around the world.

Parents have a unique opportunity to choose the best country to give birth in. It’s an opportunity even western citizens should consider since even the “first world” United Kingdom failed to crack the top 20 places in which to give birth, falling behind the likes of Montenegro and Lithuania . The study concluded that children born in Britain suffer higher infant mortality rates than many emerging countries.

So, how can you take advantage of the quality of life in other countries to give your child a better future by securing them a second passport just by being born? In this article, we’ll tell you how and where you can take advantage of birthright citizenship to do just that, and maybe even earn a second passport for yourself in the process.

How Does Birth Tourism Work?

When it comes to determining a child’s citizenship at birth, countries usually apply one of two rights: jus soli (right of soil) or jus sanguinis (right of blood).  Jus soli grants citizenship merely on the basis of being born “on the soil” of the country in question.  Jus sanguinis determines the child’s citizenship based on the parents’ nationality.

Birth tourism is simple: give birth in a country that grants citizenship based on  jus soli and provides benefits to all children born there. This will not only give your child a better qualify of life but also entitle them to a second passport immediately from birth. In many cases, parents of such children enjoy a faster naturalization timeline as well.

The process of “ jus soli ” is generally available to anyone who has a child within the territory of a country with birthright citizenship, even if they are a temporary resident or an illegal alien. The only people whose children do not qualify for instant citizenship are diplomats.

These countries offer what is called “ absolute jus soli ,” meaning that the biggest hurdle you’ll face in some countries is having to register your bundle of joy with the local authorities to secure their passport.

The United States and Canada are the only “first world countries” that offer unconditional citizenship to children born in the territory, although there are plenty of other excellent places that I would actually prefer to live in that offer this as well.

Here in Asia, Mainland Chinese parents often seek to give birth in Hong Kong to obtain the “right of abode” for their children. (Hong Kongers are Chinese citizens, but with special privileges to reside in Hong Kong.)

Of course, we know that the United States offers birthright citizenship for the same reasons that ancient Rome did: to increase the number of US tax-payers needed to pay off the country’s catastrophic debts.

Giving birth to a child in the United States is setting them up for a lifetime of taxes which they can’t even get out of without renouncing their citizenship. That means even opening a bank account for their college savings will require you to file paperwork with the US government.

What Countries Offer Birthright Citizenship?

For those who want to bestow their child with a second citizenship outside of the highly taxed western world, there are a number of places that offer “jus soli” or birthright of the soil.

Any child born within that country’s territory becomes a citizen at birth, and there are dozens of countries whose laws allow the practice. So, which countries automatically give a passport and citizenship to children born there, regardless of the nationality of the child’s parents?

Almost two decades ago, Ireland amended its constitution to end their practice as the last European country offering unconditional citizenship rights to children born to two foreign parents. Malta had amended theirs earlier, too. Other countries, such as Australia , have similarly tightened their laws.

But when you follow the birth tourism blueprint, you can forget about dual citizenship and give your child multiple citizenships .

Here is the full list of the best countries in which to give birth when seeking birth tourism options, excluding countries where a ban on the practice is currently underway.

• El Salvador
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago
• United States

*For a child to become a Chilean citizen at birth, their parents must already have a temporary or permanent residence in Chile at the time of their birth.

**As of September 2020, Portugal is just a few formalities away from expanding its jus soli laws granting birthright citizenship to children born on Portuguese soil. Currently, children born in Portugal to foreign nationals can obtain citizenship at birth if at least one parent has been a resident for two years or more. The new law would reduce that timeline to one year. 

This is an especially attractive change for Golden Visa investors in Portugal as they will now have the opportunity to bestow Portuguese citizenship on their children after just one year of residence.

The Best Birth Tourism Countries

Out of that list are a few gems…

Panama, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina are particularly noted for their quality medical care , including for world-class facilities that make giving birth there not only easy but much cheaper than any country in the West.

Two of the countries — Dominica and St. Kitts and Nevis — sell economic citizenships for six-figure price tags and even charge for your children to receive a passport, as well. Other countries that used to offer citizenship by investment programs, such as Belize, are also attractive birth tourism options.

Similar to how US persons complain of illegal immigrants getting access to welfare benefits for their US citizen child, several countries on this list offer the ability to fast track your own naturalization as the parent of a local child.

In Brazil, the wait is only one year, prompting my friend Neil Strauss to suggest “knocking up a Brazilian girl” in his book Emergency . But in all seriousness, even foreigners on tourist visas can give birth on Brazilian soil, earning their child immediate Brazilian citizenship and a one-year timeline to their own naturalization. You can learn more about Brazil’s birthright citizenship laws here .

Most other countries will fast track the parents’ naturalization so that you will be able to get citizenship in two to seven years. 

And surprisingly, some of these countries offer remarkably good passports . Holders of passports from Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico , Panama , St. Kitts and Nevis, Uruguay , and Venezuela enjoy visa-free travel to all of Central and South America as well Europe’s borderless Schengen Area and almost every country in Europe.

Some even offer travel privileges to countries that westerners do not have visa-free access to, like Russia.

Guatemala passport holders enjoy all of these privileges save the right to travel to Mexico. Nicaragua citizens enjoy Schengen area access, but more limited options within the Americas. And even some of the lesser passports here allow for visa-free travel of some sort to the UK, Ireland, Malaysia, and Singapore.

For someone interested in raising their family in the world’s emerging markets, the Peruvian passport allows for more visa-free travel to Southeast Asia and South American countries than most “first world” passports.

Outside of Canada and Chile , none of these citizenships will allow your child to visit the United States visa-free. But if you’re reading this, you might actually view that as an added benefit rather than a detriment.

Keeping your child in a growing, more laissez-faire environment is the best way to make the most of his or her birth tourism citizenship.

Be careful that you have the most up-to-date information before giving birth overseas, as a number of countries have ended their policy of giving citizenship based on birthplace; these include Australia, most recently, as well as New Zealand, Ireland, France, Malta, the Dominican Republic (which led to tens of thousands of deportations ), and India.

Of course, only you can determine how far you want to take the second citizenship and birth tourism game in an effort to bestow as many nationalities on your children as possible.

And if you happen to be pregnant now, you could always book your hospital stay and join us for one of our upcoming events on the beach.

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‘A lot of these women had no idea what they got into’: inside the world of birth tourism

A new documentary follows Chinese women who travel to the US to give birth so their children can have citizenship

I t started a decade ago, when Leslie Tai, who lives outside San Francisco, heard from a woman she’d met in Beijing and who told her that she was staying for a few months in Los Angeles. Tai’s friend was evasive about the purpose of her visit, until the pair finally had a video call and Tai watched her friend oil a round belly on camera. “She said, ‘I have a surprise for you,’” Tai recalled. “‘I’m having an American baby.’” Tai, who knew that her friend came from a poor family and was dating a wealthy older artist in China, asked if he had friends in southern California. “And she was like, ‘No, honey, you don’t need friends to do what I’m doing.’”

She was part of the birth tourism industry, which boomed during the Obama years, when scores of pregnant Chinese women of means invested in package deals that cost anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 and granted buyers the ability to fly across the world and stay for three months at a facility that catered to expectant mothers looking to score US citizenships for their children or skirt the one-child policy that was the law in China until 2015.

Tai, a Chinese American documentary film-maker, wasted no time embedding in the group home where her friend was waiting out the final days of her pregnancy, alongside a handful of other expectant mothers. “I got kind of obsessed with this idea of how on the outside, it’s just nondescript suburban tract housing, with palm trees everywhere, but then behind closed doors there’s this whole world with multiple families living in close quarters and all in this crazy intense situation of waiting to have a baby,” she said.

Securing subjects’ permission was not easy for Tai. “I started asking my aunties and uncles like, do you know anybody who is involved in this industry? They were all like, yeah, actually, my cleaner, or our nanny from when our kids were children ended up working in one of these maternity hotels,” she recalled. Tracking down subjects and winning over their trust took an enormous amount of care and strategy. “Even though what they were doing was not illegal, they had reservations, so it was not like I came in like guns blazing.” Tai’s English fluency proved a valuable resource as she pursued mothers-to-be, nannies, drivers and cooks to grant entry to their private world and anchor the vignettes in her film. “I made myself of service because actually, when they saw me, they were like, ‘Oh my God, you speak English. Can you help me call PG&E?’” She had given similar help to her friend, who did not speak English, in the delivery room.

Nearly 10 years in the making, Tai’s entrancing and heartrending film How to Have an American Baby provides viewers insider access to a phenomenon that took place behind closed doors and on Chinese websites where brokers offered pregnant women package deals as if they were cruise holidays. Money-hungry operators offered help obtaining visas and lining up rooms at specialized facilities. There were enormous industrial maternity hotels, as well as private Beverly Hills homes and boutique group homes where up to five women at a time waited out their births and holed up for the 30-day postpartum quarantine that is a Chinese tradition. Then, more often than not, they returned to China.

“By and large, the majority of the women that were coming were simply coming to evade the one-child policy,” Tai said. Some, though, were mistresses, as Chinese law did not allow unmarried mothers to give birth in public hospitals until earlier this year. Sales agents knew how to tap into maternal anxieties, playing up the supposed advantages of US citizenship. “There’s a lot of misinformation that the customers are receiving,” Tai said. “They think that there’s universal healthcare. They think that there’s universal education. It’s sold as a really good investment, but they’ve been lied to.” Babies born in the US have the right to declare their American citizenship at age 18, and apply for green cards for their families when they turn 21. “There was a sentiment of: who knows what the world is going to look like in 18 years? If China goes to hell, what if America goes to hell, whatever, they have two passports.”

Tai’s film is less concerned with policy than offering a textured portrait of the day-to-day, minute-to-minute experience that the mothers went through. The exteriors are mostly shot at night on suburban streets of southern California and the interiors sit with women bathing their babies or microwaving cups of tea while they wait to go into labor. A meditative quality pervades the work, which weaves several vignettes together into a broader portrait of women navigating a terrifying life phase in a strange land. “A lot of these women had no idea what they got into,” Tai said. “It’s almost like they were sold on the pretty pictures of this vacation and then when they come here, they realize: ‘My family’s not here, and I’m having a baby. Oh, my God, I’m sequestered with a bunch of pregnant women. Plus there’s all the drama living in the suburbs. It’s like Real Housewives from hell.”

While many of the visitors enjoyed daily meal deliveries and shopping excursions, they were surrounded by people who saw them as financial marks. The doctors in the film offer all-cash birthing options (vaginal for $3,000 or caesarean for $5,000) with the tenderness of night market vendors hawking ripoff handbags. Tai captured a maternity hotel worker saying about the residents: “If you become too friendly they will use you. The more you give them, the more they complain.”

The birth tourism world underwent major upheaval over the course of filming and editing, to the point where Tai said her film was “like a time capsule”. With the rise of Trump and the travel restrictions around Covid, and anti-Chinese and anti-American sentiment flying in both directions, the phenomenon has come to a standstill.

Tai had her own changes as well, namely, the birth of a baby this past January, a few weeks before the world premiere of her film at a festival. “I definitely took a lot of lessons from watching all these births, like making sure I was set up with the right support,” she said.

And now she is in what she called “double postpartum mode”, watching both her baby and film find their footing in the world. While the film has a jaw-dropping concept at its core, the bulk of the footage focuses on the mundanity and emotion that color the days leading up to and following childbirth, as well as the terror and ecstasy of labor itself. (There is a birthing scene more honest and beautifully gruesome than any video they’ll show you at birth class.) Tai’s ambition for her movie is strikingly tender. “I want to fight for the moving image that allows you to really sink into the humanity of the people, regardless, and even in spite of, how controversial the situation is,” she said.

How to Have an American Baby airs on PBS on 11 December

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Birth Tourism

What is birth tourism.

Also known as maternal tourism, pregnancy tourism, or maternity tourism, birth tourism is the practice of pregnant women traveling to another country to give birth. It is typically done to ensure the children will be granted citizenship in that country, as opposed to where their parents reside. Those who practice birth tourism typically come from countries where the quality of life or economic opportunities are limited.

With regards to citizenship at birth, countries usually apply either “jus solis” (right of soil) or “jus sanguinis” (right of blood). “Jus solis” grants citizenship based on being born “on the soil” of the relevant country. “Jus sanguinis” citizenship is based on the parents’ nationality.

Children born under birth tourism are granted citizenship based on “jus solis” and provided with all the benefits of that country. Birth tourism is a means of ensuring a better quality of life and securing a powerful passport for a child. Parents can also fast-track their naturalization in the country where their child is born. In the U.S., children born of birth tourism can sponsor their parents for citizenship once they turn 21.

Birth tourism is legal and has been practiced in many countries for decades. It gained attention in recent years due to increased globalization, more accessible travel, and the growth of the middle class in many developing countries.

Birth tourists typically immigrate to countries like the United States, Canada, and Brazil, where birthright citizenship policies are unrestricted. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of birth tourists, but there has been controversy about it in the last few years.

How Does Birth Tourism Work?

Engaging in birth tourism typically involves expecting parents choosing to travel before the due date of their child to another country where birthright citizenship is legal and can be granted to the newborn. The parents or one parent will obtain a tourist visa to the destination country and then give birth at a hospital or other medical facility.

A child born in a foreign country where birthright is legal is automatically granted citizenship and is entitled to all the rights and privileges of being a citizen of that country. While the practice has faced controversy in recent years, it continues to be popular in countries such as the United States and Canada, which have birthright citizenship laws that confer citizenship on anyone born within their borders, regardless of the parent’s nationality.

Benefits of Birth Tourism

There are many reasons parents engage in birth tourism. The number one advantage for parents to engage in birth tourism is to obtain a second passport for their child. Birth tourism can also expedite permanent residency and citizenship for the parents.

Some might seek to secure a better life for their children in a country with more economic, educational, and professional opportunities. Others might be looking to provide a pathway for themselves and other family members to legally immigrate later.

Some parents might also decide to have their children in a country that provides better medical care than where they reside. Giving birth can be scary or complicated, and some mothers feel more comfortable in higher-quality medical institutions.

Birth tourism is a legal and legitimate way to obtain dual citizenship for a child. Dual citizenship can open up opportunities for travel and work, as well as securing better healthcare and social benefits. Families who live in countries with weaker passports can give their children the gift of an expanded world in which to make their lives.

Birth tourism can also positively contribute to the country’s economy where the child is born by generating tourism revenue and creating additional jobs, especially in the healthcare sector.

Countries That Give Birthright Citizenship

Nearly all countries in North and South America recognize the citizenship rights of children born on their soil. The United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil are all places where children born of birth tourism are granted birthright citizenship. In these places, the parents of birth tourism children can usually obtain citizenship faster than usual.

Canada is a common option for parents who want to engage in birth tourism. It’s a popular destination for expecting parents and practices legal birthright citizenship for anyone born in the country. Having a Canadian passport opens up visa-free access to 188 countries, as well as world-class healthcare, education, and professional opportunities.

There are several benefits of engaging in birth tourism in the U.S. For one, children born in the U.S. are automatically granted citizenship, which gives them access to a wide range of benefits and opportunities. U.S. citizens can live and work in the country without the need for visas or work permits. They are entitled to various government benefits and protections, such as access to healthcare, education, and social security. Additionally, having U.S. citizenship can provide a pathway to other countries giving citizens access to 188 countries visa-free.

In Mexico, parents of Mexican citizens can get permanent residency immediately, which usually takes at least four years. Birth tourism allows parents to obtain second citizenship and passport for their children while fast-tracking citizenship for themselves. Parents can apply for Mexican citizenship after just two years. If a child is born in Brazil to foreign national parents, they receive birthright citizenship automatically. Their parents can then fast-track Brazilian residency, followed by citizenship. Mexican and Brazilian passports are desirable as they grant visa-free access to many international destinations.

Engaging in birth tourism in any country that offers birthright citizenship will give parents greater peace of mind, as they can be assured that their child will have access to the high-quality healthcare and educational systems in the country. It is a means of offering one’s children a better life and more international opportunities.

Restrictions on Birth Tourism

In the last few years, the United States has attempted to restrict birth tourism. On January 24, 2020, the Department of State amended the regulations for the B nonimmigrant visa , a temporary visa to enter the U.S. for tourism or business reasons, to address the issue of birth tourism. The amendment states that U.S. consular officers shall deny a B visa application if they believe the applicant is traveling to the U.S. to give birth and seek U.S. citizenship for their child. Tourists looking to engage in birth tourism will be under more scrutiny due to this amendment and should be aware before planning their travels.

Birth tourism is a legal means of obtaining citizenship for one’s child in a different country. Countries that are popular destinations for birth tourism include the United States, Canada, and Brazil. The U.S. has been putting measures in place to curb the amount of birth tourism in recent years. However, other countries still automatically give citizenship to any child born in the

territory. Engaging in birth tourism provides the newborn child with alternative citizenship and could streamline the naturalization process for the parents, depending on the country.

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3 Arrested in Crackdown on Multimillion-Dollar ‘Birth Tourism’ Businesses

By Miriam Jordan

• Jan. 31, 2019

Three people who operated multimillion-dollar birth-tourism businesses in Southern California were arrested Thursday in the biggest federal criminal probe ever to target the thriving industry, in which pregnant women come to the United States to give birth so their children will become American citizens.

The businesses coached their clients to deceive United States immigration officials and pay indigent rates at hospitals to deliver their babies, even though many of the clients were wealthy, investigators said. Some Chinese couples were charged as much as $100,000 for a birth-tourism package that included housing, nannies and shopping excursions to Gucci.

A tip sheet for customers, entitled “Strategies to Maximize the Chance of Entry,” recommended stating on a visa application that pregnant mothers intended to stay at the “5-star” hotel, “Trump International Waikiki Beach,” to convince immigration officials that they were well-to-do vacationers, not mothers traveling with the intention of giving birth on American soil, investigators said.

Grand jury indictments unsealed Thursday in Federal District Court in Los Angeles brought the total number of people charged in the schemes to 19, including both business operators and clients. But some of those targeted in the indictments were not presently in the United States, investigators said.

The appeal of bearing an American child, long associated with immigrants who enter the country illegally, has spurred a birth-tourism industry that now caters to people from all over the world.

[ Birth tourism is legal in Canada . A lawmaker calls it unscrupulous.]

The industry is growing at a galloping pace, especially among Chinese nationals experiencing uncertainty over their country’s long-term economic prospects, investigators said. The number of businesses in operation is undoubtedly much larger than the three agencies targeted in the latest indictments in the Los Angeles area, said Mark Zito, assistant special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles.

“We are talking about three takedowns in L.A., when there are probably 300,” Mr. Zito said. “We have seen more businesses pop up. It is probably going stronger now than it was in 2015.”

While the agencies charged in the current investigation cater mainly to Chinese parents, Mr. Zito said investigators have also found evidence of Russians heading to the Northeast and Nigerians traveling to Texas for the sole purpose of having American children. The Middle East is also a growing generator of birth tourism, investigators said.

“We are trying to quell this, but it is increasing. Other nations will start taking advantage of this,” Mr. Zito said.

The phenomenon of so-called anchor babies has fueled criticism from advocates of tougher immigration laws who are concerned that foreign adults are using their children to secure permanent residency in the United States and from there, access to public benefits.

The indictments include an array of charges, including visa fraud, wire fraud and identity theft, against owners of the birth-tourism agencies that are accused of enabling thousands of Chinese women to come explicitly to give birth to American children.

“Statements by the operators of these birthing houses show contempt for the United States, while they were luring clients with the power and prestige of U.S. citizenship for their children,” Nick Hanna, United States attorney in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “Some of the wealthy clients of these businesses also showed blatant contempt for the U.S. by ignoring court orders directing them to stay in the country to assist with the investigation, and by skipping out on their unpaid hospital bills.”

There are no official figures for how many babies are delivered to tourists on American soil. The Center for Immigration Studies, a group that supports restricting immigration, puts the number at about 36,000 annually in a 2015 report.

“The fact that we have no idea of the scale of birth tourism is a problem in and of itself,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the center in Washington. “We should not tolerate an entire industry that encourages people to come here for the sole purpose of having a child who leaves with a U.S. passport.”

In recent years, the practice has prompted some lawmakers, who have opposed children of undocumented immigrants automatically becoming citizens, to propose repealing birthright citizenship , which is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

President Trump last year claimed erroneously that the United States is the “only country in the world” that automatically confers citizenship to anyone born in the country. In fact, it is one of at least 30 countries that do so.

Still, the United States has struggled to rein in birth tourism because it is not unlawful for foreigners who are pregnant to travel to the United States or to have babies in the country.

“Birth tourism is a gray area of the law,” said Ms. Vaughan, who called “at the very least” for a revision of citizenship rights to prevent those who are in the country for only the first few weeks of their lives from retaining citizenship for life.

China, home to a burgeoning moneyed class that includes many who are eager for a foothold in the United States, is the biggest market for the birth-tourism industry. The United States offers educational opportunities for their children and a safe haven down the road in the event of political and economic instability in their home country.

The indictments allege that government officials, doctors and lawyers are among those traveling from China to the United States to have children.

The businesses were dismantled following raids in 2015 by the special agents on several sites where the businesses housed pregnant women, in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange Counties. But it is not clear how long the three birth-tourism agencies had been operating.

Dongyuan Li, a resident of Irvine, Calif., who ran a business called “You Win USA,” is accused in the indictment of renting about 20 units in a luxury apartment complex in Irvine under the names of people who did not occupy them as part of an “illegal international birth tourism scheme.” Clients spent a couple of months there before giving birth and were then replaced with newly arrived pregnant women, the charging document said.

On its website, Ms. Li’s company touted the benefits of having an American child, including a “most attractive nationality;” “priority for jobs in U.S. government, public companies and large corporations;” and the opportunity to immigrate to the United States once that child became an adult and could sponsor a parent for a green card.

The business, which advertised on its website that it had handled 500 births, charged each client $40,000 to $80,000 for a range of services that included coaching on how to respond to questions at a visa interview, fill out forms and disguise the true motive for travel from Customs officers at the airport on arrival, according to the indictment.

One customer is alleged to have falsely stated on a visa application that she would be spending 12 days at the “Trump International Hotel” in Hawaii.

You Win USA recommended that clients flew from China to Hawaii and then connected on a domestic flight to Los Angeles, their final destination, to clear passport control in Honolulu and avoid tougher scrutiny expected from officers in California.

It promised a refund to any customer who was not admitted into the country on arrival, according to the indictment.

The business arranged accommodation, prenatal care and shopping trips for the women. In some cases, the indictment said, it instructed clients to fabricate financial documents to enable them to obtain visa extensions, and it deposited money temporarily in their bank accounts.

Mr. Zito, the special agent, said clients were advised to claim they lacked insurance, which entitled them to pay the indigent rate at whichever hospital they used to deliver their babies.

In some cases, he said, the women returned to China and canceled their credit card to avoid paying even that rate, about $4,000, which is a fraction of what it costs most women in the United States to deliver a baby.

At the same time, he noted, “they would have nannies and buy things at Gucci and Hermes at South Coast Plaza,” a high-end mall in Costa Mesa, Calif., where many shops have Mandarin-speaking attendants to help the numerous Chinese customers.

Ms. Li was arrested on Thursday, along with the operators of USA Happy Baby, another agency associated with birth tourism, according to the indictment: Michael Wei Yueh Liu, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and Jing Dong, of Fontana, Calif.

Another indictment charges Wen Rui Deng, operator of a business based in Los Angeles called Star Baby Care, believed to be the largest birth-tourism operation in the country. There was no arrest in that case because Ms. Deng is believed to be in China, investigators said.

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• By Mark Rodriguez
• Dec 4, 2017

It’s not new, but ‘birth tourism’ is a growing CNMI industry

Saipan— Birth tourism is a hot issue once again after the Federal Bureau of Investigation was tipped off by a local doctor to an alleged large scale operation on the island.

Birth tourism has long been an underground industry in the CNMI, with pregnant Chinese women flocking to Saipan to give birth that automatically provides U.S. citizenship to their new-born child. Most of these women leave the CNMI after childbirth and receipt of their baby’s U.S. passport.

Early in the morning or late in the afternoon, groups of pregnant Chinese women can be seen walking along the Beach Road Pathway to exercise their legs since this is one of the prenatal activities that helps in having an easier childbirth.

It has allegedly become a lucrative business in China where travel agencies were reportedly even offering tour packages to Saipan. From the airport, pregnant Chinese women are picked up and housed in an apartment already reserved for them. During their stay on Saipan, they will be helped by caretakers who cook their meals, clean their rooms and wash their clothes. These caretakers, usually employed by the party who picks up them up at the airport, are reportedly paid $1,000 a month.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, just being on the verge of giving birth is not a basis for denying entry to any state or territory since no U.S. immigration laws or regulations bar this. Chinese tourists enjoy a visa waiver under U.S. immigration but are allowed to stay in any U.S. state or territory for only 45 days.

“Coming to the U.S. in order to give birth does not, in and of itself, render an individual inadmissible,” said U.S. CBP San Francisco Field Office program manager and public affairs liaison Frank Falcon. “There is no inadmissibility ground within the U.S. immigration law that prohibits the birth of a child in the U.S.”

Falcon added that CBP officers determine the admissibility of a traveler or any individual who are applying as a temporary visitor based on their inspections but must first overcome all grounds of inadmissibility. Foreign nationals can also get medical care and other treatment, provided that they can pay their own bills.

“As with any traveler, CBP will examine whether or not the traveler is admissible. The intent to enter the U.S. must be consistent with the visa/entry documents presented for entry. Including the requirement that the traveler not [to] abandon foreign residence, has no intent to return, will be able to maintain status while in the U.S. and be able to provide for all attendant costs while in the U.S. (including medical and personal costs) and for return.”

Airlines also have a policy of not allowing heavily pregnant women or those who are due to give birth to travel due to safety issues. Women who are 32 weeks pregnant are allowed by air carriers to board while asking for medical certificates from those who are 35 weeks into their pregnancy.

Last year’s statistics

Last year’s numbers alone, from the Commonwealth Health Center, show an increasing trend of tourists giving birth in the CNMI growing from only 314 in 2014 to 383 in 2016. Back in 2009, there were only eight recorded child births from Chinese parents and that number jumped to 282 in 2012, a 3,000 percent increase. Based on current data, the numbers have spiked another 150 percent since.

Foreign parents gave birth to 715 babies from Jan. 2015 to Sept. 2016 where 692 of the total number were by Chinese women. The 2015 calendar year also had 379 childbirths by Chinese nationals. There were also 15 babies born from Korean parents, five from Filipinos, two Japanese, and one Russian during a 22-month period. All of these babies are now U.S. passport holders and their numbers could possibly increase as the 2017 calendar year is about to end next month.

The increasing numbers had the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. implementing a new policy of not processing the documents of newborn babies until all medical bills are settled by their parents. There were some incidents that women who gave birth allegedly left the CNMI without settling their medical bills after getting their child’s U.S. passport.

CHCC is following the provisions of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act—a federal law requiring patients, including women who are in labor, who are admitted to emergency care to be treated regardless of status or ability to pay the medical bills.

Recent case

Last month, the FBI uncovered a large scale birth tourism network on Saipan based on an anonymous tip that led to the investigation of supposedly overstaying tourist Sen Sun’s alleged operations. Sun’s operation allegedly accepts pregnant women wanting to give birth on Saipan, housing them in an apartment in Garapan.

The Chinese women want U.S. citizenship for their children and in return expect to become a U.S. citizen themselves after their child becomes eligible to petition them at age 21. They are paying thousands of dollars to a birth tourism ring that has connections in mainland China, offering the chance of a Saipan birth.

Sun has been bringing most of his clients to the Marianas Medical Clinic near downtown Garapan for regular prenatal checkups and childbirths. He’s been allegedly operating an unlicensed business that offers package trips to pregnant Chinese women to give birth on Saipan to have their babies obtain an automatic U.S. citizenship.

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'Birth tourism' in Saipan causing headaches for USA

• Chinese births most numerous in the Northern Marianas
• Chinese and Russian tourists allowed 45-day visits without visas to the U.S. territory
• Traffic has boomed since Hong Kong put in blocks against maternity tourists

HONG KONG — The United States is putting the word out to Chinese travel agencies: Stop allowing pregnant Chinese woman to visit the Northern Mariana Islands to give birth.

Why would the USA care? Because any child born in this string of 15 islands between the Philippines and Hawaii is eligible for U.S. citizenship, and in the past two years, the number of women delivering babies here has jumped dramatically.

Eloy Inos, the islands' governor, told the Saipan Tribune that immigration agents had sent home about 20 "birth tourists" in the past three to four months because of "documentation problems."

And last month, a pregnant tourist who had arrived on a charter flight from Shanghai late one evening was sent back home early the next morning. Fenny He, the leader of the tour involved, told the Tribune s he advised the woman not to go but "she refused to listen."

Chinese tourist traffic to the islands in the first seven months of this year already matched arrivals for all of 2012, with the figure for July alone rising 49% to 11,177. Overall births in the Northern Marianas have been falling, but the Marianas Variety newspaper reports that births to ethnic Chinese rose 175% between 2010 and 2012 and last year outnumbered those of any other ethnicity.

Many of the pregnant women arrive to avoid China's retribution, fines or worse that come with the Communist country's one-child policy. The Northern Marianas are a convenient refuge because Chinese can visit the islands for up to 45 days without a visa under an exemption to U.S. immigration rules intended to foster tourism.

And because it is one of a handful of official U.S. territories (Puerto Rico is another), children born in the Northern Marianas are eligible for U.S. citizenship.

Chinese tourist traffic of all kinds is now big business for the Northern Marianas. Northern Marianas officials are eager to head off the birth tourism problem to make sure it does not prompt the USA to revoke the visa waiver for Chinese tourists, something no competing U.S. destination can offer. Nearby Guam is seeking a similar waiver to compete.

Tourism is more important than ever here since the demise of the Northern Marianas textile industry. The industry thrived on exemptions from U.S. laws on minimum wages and foreign labor to produce "Made in America" clothes at cut rates. But a bill signed by President George W. Bush in 2007 raising the minimum wage in the mainland United States applies to the Northern Marianas as well, though implementation takes place over a longer period.

The Northern Marianas came into the possession of the United States after being wrested from the Japanese during battle in World War II. The people living on the islands, only three of which are permanently inhabited, have declined independence.

Today, Saipan, the largest island, receives about eight charter flights a week from the Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing with Wuhan and other cities set for connections too. And many businesses cater specifically to the maternity traffic.

The operator of one Saipan guesthouse told Radio Free Asia that she hosted 50 Chinese mothers last year, charging them $11,000 for accommodations, travel, translation help and some medical care, though most also incurred around $10,000 in other medical bills.

Most of those flights are organized by Century Tours, a company owned by Hong Kong's Tan family, who previously pioneered the islands' garment business and own several Saipan hotels.

Inos and the islands' non-voting congressman in Washington have appealed to the Department of Homeland Security to deny entry to birth tourists. In response, U.S. immigration has been passing the word directly to Chinese travel companies to discourage maternity traffic.

Now, notes with certain Saipan flights and travel packages on the popular Chinese travel website Ctrip say purchase by pregnant mainland women is no longer allowed following notices from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Not all are listening. Kuanyi Chen, a Taiwan national, received a nine-month prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to to one count of harboring aliens for financial gain after federal agents said he had organized visits for Chinese women tourists to give birth in Saipan.

Birth tourism causes other problems too.

Inos said the Commonwealth Health Center, the only hospital on Saipan, may require tourists to provide a security deposit to combat the problem of bills left unpaid. Another proposal would raise the price of issuing birth certificates to certain types of visitors to as much as $50,000 from $20.