Revealed! How to Travel to The US and Give Birth Despite The New Law | Read
The United States introduced new laws to curb the practice of “birth tourism”, this means pregnant women would be under heavy (and probably discriminatory and unfair) scrutiny when they applying for the B1/B2 visa to visit United States.
They will now be refused visas out-rightly if there is no other “compelling” reason for the pregnant woman to visit the country and if there is any reason to believe that such person would give birth to the child while visiting the United States. Many Nigerians who have had plans to go deliver their baby in the United States have been scrambling with fear since the release of this new law yesterday by the US homeland security, but not to worry, Gistmania will explain how you could still get into the USA to give birth to your child if your circumstances would permit you getting the chance.
Just before we go any further, if you have given birth to your other children in the United States as a birth tourist or practiced birth tourism in the past, then there is already a huge red flag on your file once the usual background check is conducted during your application, it is more than likely that your visa will fall under suitability for refusal, except as previously explained before, there is another compelling reason that has to be considered by the consular to issue you a visitor visa (did I hear you breathe a sigh of relief? yes you can, because there are thousands of compelling reasons that you could use to file your application).
To put into perspective, just visiting an extended family member or friend because you have not seen them for a long time or coming to the USA for Christmas, New Year, shopping spree or other related festivities cannot be considered as compelling reasons, to put into perspective, compelling reasons are reasons that lead to a do-or-die situation. As I was explaining, if you have partaken in birth tourism in the past, then you stand a very slim chance of getting other visitors to visit regardless of whether you are pregnant or not! but something that could be compelling is if there is a medical situation need for your (American) child which requires specialist consultation from an hospital based in the USA, in which case you would need to have made adequate arrangement with the corresponding hospital in the United States and obviously have proof that you have sufficient funds to pay for this treatment while in the US and not become a burden on the United States taxpayer in any shape or form, to put lightly, you would need a lot more money than it would have cost you to obtain this visa prior to today, 24th January 2020. Secondly, you would be ready to explain all this compelling reason for the border officer at the point of entry when you arrive at the airport in the United States. The CBP officers have adequate powers to revoke your visa at the point of entry if they have any reason to think that your primary reason for being in the USA is to give birth.
If you have never given birth in the USA or partaken in birth tourism in the past, then you stand quite a good chance of getting your B1/B2 visa as nothing much has changed in such circumstances. The visa officers have also been warned not to ask female visa applicants if they are pregnant during visa interviews, however, if you have a big belly or a baby bump during your visa interview then there won’t be any need for such a question regardless. This means you stand a better chance of getting your visa without too much hassle before you get pregnant. Hence the sequence gets your visa first then gets pregnant after that, which in itself will cost you more time and money as well. I know you might be thinking if you are already pregnant, what are your chances of scaling through, you still stand a very good chance I have to say, as there are complicated pregnancies that would require superior specialist attention that might not be available in Nigeria and could lead to a life-or-death situation.
It is not anyone’s wish to have any kind of complications during pregnancy and would never advise anyone to even try to make up any complication or provide inaccurate information during your visa application process. However, what you could do to present a compelling situation is if you are are very high earner in Nigeria and feel you can hire the services of some of the high-end private hospitals in the United States alongside getting a US medical insurance for yourself and anyone who wishes to accompany you on your trip, then you stand a pretty good chance. What does this mean? This simply means that the super rich will not have any problem going to give birth in the USA, but the middle-class average earners who have the dream of having American children might face some slight obstacle purely from the financial angel as you would need to prove your financial strength before you can even attempt to convince the visa officer to consider issuing you a visa.
I hope you find this information useful in your quest to secure your US visa, if you have any question or comments, please post them below this post so that we can have an interactive conversation