Who are the “Anchor Children” in the USA?
This is the name given to children born in America to foreign citizens. The US Constitution enshrines “the right of the land.” It provides American citizenship to any child born in the country.
Everyone understands that this is only a way to obtain citizenship after 21 years of reunification with the family. This is why many people go to give birth in the USA. When Trump was president, he constantly talked about closing this shop. He failed to repeal the amendment, and no president will succeed, since this is within the competence of Congress. Of course, due to this opportunity and demand, “maternity tourism” exists. A whole business industry has emerged of intermediary agencies, clinics and doctors who help foreigners arrange childbirth in the United States. Most often they offer to give birth in Miami, Los Angeles or New York. Cost: about $20.
They say that before the pandemic, direct flights from the CIS countries to Miami were always characterized by a large number of pregnant women, but no one usually has problems at the border so far. I heard that they can turn around if the purpose of the trip is childbirth, but there is no paid clinic for this. The officers definitely don’t want everyone coming to give birth at the expense of American taxpayers. But there are no restrictions on issuing citizenship to children of foreigners. If you pay for everything and provide paper evidence, everything should be okay.
Although many Russian-speaking girls go to give birth, this trend is widespread all over the world. It is not known exactly, but it seems that it all started in China. In general, childbirth in America is also popular in Korea, Nigeria, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico.
By the way, children will be given citizenship even if their parents are illegal immigrants. There are a lot of such cases - more than 300 children per year (000% of the total number of all newborns in the United States). Children receive American citizenship and become “anchors” for their parents, who then want to legalize themselves. I don't know how possible this is, I'm not an immigration lawyer. But no one will report illegal immigrants to the immigration office; it doesn’t work like that in America. All services are not connected to each other, so in theory they have nothing to worry about.
Obtaining citizenship by “right of the land” exists in more than 30 countries around the world (marked in blue in the photo below). In EU countries this was also possible before, but they have already abandoned this practice. Agree, it is quite a long and not the most reliable way to obtain another citizenship. Although I am sure that many parents simply want to provide their child with the opportunity to determine their future independently if something happens and have an excellent passport for travel.
Author: Anton Nayanzin
