New Delhi: A United States visitor visa is meant for temporary travel, but American officials say some businesses have built a commercial model around a different purpose: helping foreign nationals travel to the country to give birth and obtain citizenship for their children.
The Trump administration is now targeting those networks with new visa restrictions.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the policy on 23 September, targeting foreign nationals who knowingly engage in or facilitate commercial “birth tourism”. The restrictions cover people involved in arranging such travel, including operators of birth-tourism networks, visa “fixers” and foreign medical providers who knowingly facilitate the practice.
Birth tourism refers to travelling to the US primarily to give birth so that the child is a birthright citizen of the country. The US State Department has previously said this is not a permissible purpose for a visitor visa. A B-2 visitor visa can be used for tourism, visiting family and friends, or medical treatment, among other purposes, but not when the primary purpose of the trip is to give birth so that the child obtains citizenship.
The State Department introduced specific rules on birth tourism in 2020. Under those rules, consular officers can deny a B category visitor visa application if they have reason to believe that the applicant is travelling primarily to give birth in the US.
Curbing birth tourism
However, what is new with the latest announcement is the focus on the commercial networks behind such travel.
The State Department said that some businesses advertise birth-tourism packages, arrange travel and medical care, and coach applicants on how to misrepresent their plans to visa officers. Rubio accused such networks of charging thousands of dollars to arrange births in the US. The new restrictions can apply to owners, operators and managers of commercial birth-tourism networks, visa “fixers” who help applicants commit fraud, foreign medical providers who knowingly facilitate commercial birth tourism and people who knowingly assist fraudulent use of the US Medicaid system.
The policy is being implemented under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the Secretary of State to restrict visas on foreign-policy grounds when an individual’s entry could have potentially serious consequences for US foreign policy.
Earlier this year, in August, the department also created the Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force. The task force was set up to identify birth tourism activity, review visa holders, revoke visas where appropriate and target networks involved in commercial birth tourism. The department said that more than 600 visas have already been revoked as part of its efforts, including cases where there were indications that applicants had misrepresented the purpose of their travel.
Protecting US citizenship
The announcement does not mean a blanket ban on pregnant women travelling to the US. The distinction remains the purpose of the trip. An expectant mother travelling to the US for a permissible reason is not automatically denied a visa because she is pregnant.
But if officials determine that the primary purpose of the trip is to give birth so the child can obtain US citizenship, a visa will not be issued. Applicants can also face problems if they provide false information about their plans. The latest policy puts additional pressure on the intermediaries who allegedly help applicants conceal those plans.
The move is separate from President Donald Trump’s broader push to change birthright-citizenship rules, which is being challenged in various US courts. Rubio’s announcement concerns visa eligibility, while the birthright-citizenship fight concerns whether certain children born in the US can acquire citizenship at birth.
It also comes amid a wider tightening of US visa screening. The State Department has expanded online-presence checks to more visa categories, with applicants in categories including foreign media representatives and certain USMCA professionals now required to make their social-media profiles public or open for review from 1 October.
In recent months, the US has also introduced visa restrictions targeting people involved in cyber scams, cyber-enabled fraud and extortion, while continuing nationality-based visa restrictions. The State Department has expanded online vetting to several categories, including H-1B, student and exchange-visitor applicants, and others.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)