Giving birth in the US on a tourist visa in 2026

More than 6,000 visas revoked in three months. On November 12, 2026, the US State Department reported on its birth tourism task force: the Supreme Court has kept US birthright citizenship, but the tourist visa route to it is now closed.

In detail

You can give birth in the US on a tourist visa in 2026 in only one case: if giving birth was not the purpose of the trip. Anything else, American authorities now call birth tourism and punish through the visa system. On November 12, 2026, the US State Department said its Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force had revoked more than 6,000 visas from foreigners who travelled to give birth or helped arrange it.

The pace is striking. The task force was set up on August 12, 2026, with more than 600 revocations to its name. By October 31 the count passed 4,000, and two weeks later 6,000. For scale: since January 2025, the State Department has revoked more than 300,000 visas for all kinds of reasons, as we covered in our guide to a revoked US visa.

The paradox is that the prize people flew in for has not gone anywhere. A child born on US soil still gets American citizenship. What changed is the road to it.

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What happened on November 12, 2026

The State Department statement is short: the Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force has revoked more than 6,000 visas from foreigners who engaged in or facilitated birth tourism. The department promised to identify and hold accountable everyone involved.

• Who was affected. The November statement gave no breakdown by country. The October one did: more than 700 of the revoked visas belonged to Chinese nationals.
• What revocation means. The visa stops being valid. It is not deportation or a criminal case, but with this mark on your record the next visa is much harder to get.
• Who is targeted. Not only the travellers. On September 23, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions on facilitators: birth tour organizers, visa fixers who coach applicants to mislead consular officers, and foreign doctors who knowingly take part. Their family members may be covered too.
• Tip-offs count. Alongside the restrictions, the State Department opened an online form for reporting visa fraud, so a review can start from someone else's report.

Did the US end birthright citizenship

US birthright citizenship is in force. On June 30, 2026, in Trump v. Barbara, the US Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 to strike down Executive Order 14160 of 2025, which denied citizenship to children of parents without permanent status. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion: the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born in the country.

The administration answered on August 6, 2026, with two new orders. The first, 14418, tells agencies to withhold citizenship documents from children in a set of narrow categories when neither parent is a US citizen. Civil rights groups challenged it in federal court right away, since the Supreme Court had just called the exceptions to birthright citizenship a closed list. The second, 14419, is titled Ending Birth Tourism, and it targets visas, not citizenship. That is the one now working at full force.

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Why a tourist visa will now be refused

The rule has applied since January 24, 2020: travelling mainly to give birth in the US so the child gets citizenship is not a valid reason for a B visa. The B visa is the standard visitor visa for tourism, medical treatment and business meetings. If a consular officer has reason to believe the applicant will give birth during the trip, the officer may presume that is the purpose and refuse. The presumption can be rebutted, but the burden is on the applicant.

Executive Order 14419 added machinery to the rule. Consular officers must refuse on reasonable suspicion, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can deny entry at the border, and facilitators are being hunted down. Nationals of some countries also face a visa bond of up to 20,000 dollars, which we covered in our review of new US visa rules.

Pregnancy on its own is not a ban. A woman at any stage can travel to the US on holiday, to see family or for a conference. Treatment and delivery in an American hospital are not banned either, if treatment is the real purpose of the trip and the applicant shows she can pay for it. The line is drawn by purpose, and US consular officers have become very careful readers on this point.

What this means in practice

• You are pregnant and travelling to the US for business or a visit. You can go. Carry a return ticket, proof of the trip's purpose and insurance that covers pregnancy. The closer your due date is to the trip, the more questions at the border.
• You planned to give birth in the US on a tourist visa. That plan is now risky: visa refusal, being turned back at the border or revocation after the trip. The consequences outlast the trip, because the record stays with the applicant.
• Your child was already born in the US. The Supreme Court ruling protects the child's citizenship. If the parents' visas are reviewed, it is worth checking in advance that everything in the forms was stated honestly.
• You live in the US on a work or student visa. That is not birth tourism: you have a lawful reason to be there, and giving birth during work or study does not break the rules.

What a US passport gives a child and what it does not

The upsides are well known: a strong passport, the right to live and work in the US without visas or lotteries. The downsides get less airtime. A US citizen pays US tax on worldwide income wherever they live and reports foreign bank accounts. We explain this in our guide to taxes in different countries. Parents get no status from the birth: a citizen child can only petition for their green cards after turning 21. More on how US citizenship works for children and adults is on our page about US citizenship and in our guide to moving to the US.

Where to give birth for a second citizenship legally

Almost every country that grants unconditional citizenship by birth is in the Americas, and most of them do not treat foreign mothers as a problem. Parents get residence after the birth, and the child gets a passport with visa-free access to 140-170 countries.

The fastest route for the whole family is Brazil or Argentina, where the mother can also qualify for a passport after one or two years of residence. A detailed comparison with budgets and documents is in our article on giving birth abroad for citizenship, and a step-by-step look at the Argentine option is in our piece on giving birth in Argentina. Mexico and Costa Rica also grant citizenship by birth.

An honest caveat: in these countries the real purpose of the trip and a real address matter too. The difference is that their laws directly give the parents of a citizen child the right to stay and apply for residence. In Latin America this is not a loophole but a normal part of the migration system.

The alternative: a second passport for the whole family

If the goal is less about the child's passport and more about a backup document for the family, a birth is not required. Argentine citizenship is open to adults after two years of residence, and our second passport page lists every legal program, including citizenship by investment. How to choose a second country specifically for a child is covered in our article on dual citizenship for a child.

Our services for giving birth abroad and a child's citizenship

Murblz experts guide families from choosing a country to the child's passport and the parents' residence permits. Our main services:

We also handle the steps where families get stuck most: choosing a hospital, pregnancy insurance, legalizing the birth certificate, residence for the parents and tax planning around the child's new passport.

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