Trump administration targets birth tourism with visa curbs: Who could face restrictions under new policy

The United States has announced a new visa restriction policy targeting people who knowingly engage in or facilitate commercial “birth tourism”, including operators of birth-tourism networks, visa “fixers” accused of coaching applicants to commit fraud and foreign medical providers involved in such arrangements.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the policy on September 23, saying the measure is aimed at commercial networks that arrange for foreign nationals to travel to the US to give birth primarily to obtain US citizenship for their children.

The department accused such networks of advertising birth-tourism services, coaching applicants to lie on US visa applications and charging tens of thousands of dollars to arrange births on American soil.

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The policy targets individuals who knowingly engage in, have engaged in or facilitate commercial birth tourism .

According to the State Department, this includes owners, operators and managers of commercial birth-tourism facilitation networks.

It also covers visa “fixers” who coach applicants to commit fraud, foreign medical providers who knowingly facilitate such travel and the fraudulent use of Medicaid, as well as other people who support, assist or enable commercial birth tourism.

The State Department said certain family members of people covered by the restrictions may also be subject to the policy.

Rubio said the administration is using the visa restrictions to protect the integrity of US citizenship, safeguard public-benefit programs and protect American taxpayers from what the department described as exploitation.

The latest policy builds on existing restrictions concerning birth tourism.

The State Department has previously said that travelling to the US primarily to give birth so that a child obtains US citizenship is not a permissible purpose for a visitor visa.

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In January 2020, the State Department introduced a rule allowing consular officers to deny a B visa application when they have reason to believe the applicant's primary purpose for travelling to the US is to give birth in order to obtain citizenship for the child.

The new policy goes beyond the individual traveler by specifically targeting people and businesses involved in facilitating commercial birth-tourism arrangements.