Some Wealthy Chinese Seeking U.S. Surogates to Obtain Second Child and Green Cards

Reuters recently ran an article titled: “Wealthy Chinese seek U.S. Surrogates for second child, green card.

Apparently some wealthy Chinese families are hiring American women to serve as surrogates for their children.

These wealthy Chinese want a baby outside of China’s restrictive family planning policies (or they may not be able to have a baby  themselves or they are seeking U.S. citizenship for their children.)

Apparently these families may also wish to immigrate to the United States in the future ( U.S. citizens may apply for Green Cards for their parents when the U.S. Citizen child turns 21). If the child is born in the United States then the child is a U.S. citizen.

“While there is no data on the total number of Chinese who have sought or used U.S. surrogates, agencies in both countries say demand has risen rapidly in the last two years.

U.S. fertility clinics and surrogacy agencies are creating Chinese-language websites and hiring Mandarin speakers.”

“Overall, the number of Chinese visitors to the United States nearly doubled in recent years, from 1 million in 2010 to 1.8 million in 2012, U.S. immigration statistics show. prospective Chinese clients almost always want to chose U.S. citizenship for their babies, while other agencies pointed to a desire to have children educated in the United States.”

Some wealthy Chinese say they want a bolt-hole overseas because they fear they will the targets of public or government anger if there were more social unrest in China. There is also a perception that their wealth will be better protected in countries with a stronger rule of law.

At least one Chinese agent promotes surrogacy as a cheaper alternative to America’s EB-5 visa, which requires a minimum investment in a job creating  business of $500,000.

Some Chinese are going through this process for infertility reasons and others are looking at the process as a way to get around China’s 1979 family planning policy that restricts couples, in most cases, to one child.

The article states that “families who violate the one-child policy face the prospect of forced abortions, sterilizations and fines, policies that have been most brutally enforced in poor, rural areas.”

“For children who are foreign citizens, parents must apply for visas and residence permits.”

Lawrence Gruner is an immigration lawyer, a  fiancé visa attorney and a green card attorney with almost 20 years of experience handling immigration cases.  He would be happy to talk to you about your immigration case.  He may be reached at 888-801-6558.