Legal Issues After Foreigner Gives Birth in the U.S.

Due to the territorial principle of the United States, a child born in the United States is considered a U.S. citizen. B1/B2 visas to go to the United States to give birth have become a popular choice for many mothers. However, the “sequelae” brought about by going to the United States to give birth should not be underestimated, and the use of American welfare for childbirth is even more problematic.

Year: 2018
Applicant: Mrs. Zheng, mother of David (US citizen, 4 years old)
Case: U.S. Passport Renewal Document (RFE)

Difficulties in this case:
• Mrs. David Zheng entered the country with a B1/B2 visa and told the customs that she was traveling and had no plan to give birth to a child in the United States. She was suspected of visa fraud
• Mrs. Zheng stayed in the United States to have a baby and used California Medi-Cal
• Mrs. Zheng gave a dishonest answer when the consulate officer asked whether the production cost was paid for by herself.

Background introduction:
Mrs. Zheng lives in Southeast Asia with her husband. She traveled to the United States on a B1/B2 visa in 2014 and gave birth to her son David. After applying for the American birth certificate and passport for David, Mrs. Zheng took her son back to the place of residence. Until David passed his 4th birthday this year, and the date of expiry of his passport was getting closer, Mrs. Zheng and her husband took David to the US Consulate to renew his son’s passport.

I thought it would be easy for my son to renew his passport, but unexpectedly, during the interview, the consulate officials asked Mrs. Zheng and his wife many questions, such as: “Why did you go to the United States when you were pregnant? Did the customs know that you were pregnant? Did they know that you would be in the United States?” Have a baby?”, “Will you give birth in the United States at your own expense? How much will it cost? Where is the receipt?” According to her vague memory, Mrs. Zheng answered that she was asked about pregnancy at the customs at the time of entry, but she denied that she had any plans to stay in the United States and have a baby; Children are at their own expense, but they did not bring the receipts. Consulate officials gave her seven days to bring payment receipts.

When Mrs. Zheng went home and carefully sorted out the hospital information four years ago, she found that she applied for California Medi-Cal when she gave birth in the United States . Except for the small white card and application data, she did not find the receipt for paying the delivery fee.

Now Mrs. Zheng was completely panicked. She knew that the most taboo thing in the United States is lying. If she couldn’t prove that the production was at her own expense and she was found to have used medical benefits, she might be judged as a false statement or cheating “Misrepresentation/Fraud” , will be permanently denied entry to the United States, and the son’s American passport may not be renewed. This incident weighed on Mrs. Zheng’s heart like a huge stone, making her unable to think about eating and drinking during the day, and tossing and turning at night. Mrs. Zheng found Zang Dikai United Law Firm (Tsang & Associates) on the recommendation of relatives and friends, hoping that we can help her tide over the difficulties with correct and effective methods.

Keys to success:
Key Point 1: Personal Affidavit
The team of Tsang & Associates assisted Mrs. Zheng in drafting a personal affidavit about her background process of going to the United States to give birth and use medical benefits. Reasonably explained that she temporarily decided to stay in the United States to give birth due to health reasons, and then applied for and used California Medi-cal due to her ignorance and the recommendation of others, but there was no intention to deceive.

Mrs. Zheng sincerely apologized and asked for forgiveness, and expressed her willingness to pay back the production costs of the year and compensate for the resulting losses. Through such a sincere affidavit, Mrs. Zheng can explain the facts clearly, minimize the negative impact and win understanding.

Key Point 2: Basis & Supporting Documents
Zang Dikai’s lawyer team sorted out the medical welfare card used by Mrs. Zheng at that time and the approval notice of the application. The notice indicated that Mrs. Zheng met the application criteria and usage rights. In addition, we also carefully searched and provided relevant laws and regulations, as well as official documents issued by the government’s health department , which once again proved that Mrs. Zheng’s income at that time was in line with the conditions for applying for medical benefits for pregnant women in 2014.

Key Point 3: Proactive Response
After preparing the relevant documents for Mrs. Zheng, we also instructed her to prepare a reasonable e-mail to reply to the request for supplementary documents. She had the courage to reply to the consulate on her own initiative.

Case results:
After Mrs. Zheng sent the email, she received an official reply from the consulate on the same day, saying that she accepted her explanation and was willing to issue a new passport to David. Mrs. Zheng was very excited when she saw the email. It was great news for her who had been suffering for a whole week. The boulder that had been hanging on her chest finally fell to the ground. She also immediately shared the good news with Tsang & Associates, thanking our professional service for effectively solving the problem for her.

Lawyer Comments:
The case of Mrs. Zheng is representative to a certain extent. Due to the territorial principle of the United States, a child born in the United States is considered a U.S. citizen. B1/B2 visas to go to the United States to give birth have become a popular choice for many mothers. However, the “sequelae” brought about by going to the United States to give birth should not be underestimated, and the use of American welfare for childbirth is even more problematic. Each case is different. If you encounter such problems, please contact Tsang & Associates.

*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.