US State Department Changes Visa Regulations to Prevent ‘Birth Tourism’

Effective January 24th, the U.S. Department of State is amending its non-immigrant visa regulations to prevent “birth tourism.” Specifically, this covers “travel for the primary purpose of obtaining United States citizenship for a child by giving birth to the child in the United States.”

“Under this amended regulation, consular officers overseas would deny any B visa application from an applicant whom the consular officer has reason to believe is traveling for that primary purpose of giving birth in the United States to obtain U.S. citizenship for the child.” A State Department Official clarified that “because an applicant’s pregnant, because an applicant wants to give birth in the United States, does not in and of itself mean the applicant will be refused the visa.” Rather, the applicant must be “going to the United States for the purpose of giving birth to a child to obtain U.S. citizenship”.