If You Have a Baby With a Chinese Citizen
It's no secret -- moms will do just about anything for their kids.
Some are even willing to commit visa fraud, lie to immigration officers and pay tens of thousands of dollars to shady middlemen -- as long as the payoff is a U.South. passport for their newborn.
An underground "birth tourism" network that stretches from the U.S. to Communist china has sprung up to cater to growing numbers of Chinese mothers who travel stateside to give birth, according to affidavits filed by federal law enforcement officers. The moms are lured by laws that grant U.S. citizenship to anyone built-in on American soil.
Section of Homeland Security agents carried out a series of "nascency tourism" raids earlier this month as part of a larger criminal investigation targeting companies in California that have netted millions helping significant Chinese women fraudulently secure visas and scam hospitals.
Related: Why Chinese moms want American babies
Documents made public as part of the investigation shed calorie-free on the lengths that expectant Chinese mothers are willing to go for an American babe. Hither's a look at some of the tactics:
Lie on your visa application
Pregnant women from China are allowed to vacation in the U.S., after securing a travel visa from the U.Southward. government. Only if someone misrepresents the reason for visiting, that's visa fraud.
DHS documents describe i Chinese adult female, and her partner, who claimed to be traveling to the U.South. for tourism on their visa application. A U.S. consular officer ended afterwards an interview that they were "credible tourists" traveling for fun, co-ordinate to DHS.
On the visa application, the woman even put a Los Angeles hotel as the accost where she would be staying. But she later listed a different one on a U.S. passport awarding for her newborn. That 2nd address was for a unit of measurement in a loftier-end Irvine, California flat circuitous where one birth tourism visitor had rented a number of homes, according to DHS.
The company that used the apartments, You Win U.s., was one of three targets in the DHS raids carried out early March. DHS is investigating the people who run You Win, and like businesses, for alleged visa fraud, tax evasion, failure to report overseas avails and scamming hospitals.
DHS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said no criminal charges take all the same been filed, and no arrests made. DHS is reviewing evidence seized during the raids and statements from witnesses.
Y'all Win recommended moms who wanted to give nascency in the U.S. apply for tourist visas far in advance to avert detection by U.S. authorities, and even coached clients how to lie in their interview, according to DHS documents.
Over the past two years, You Win'south alleged visa fraud scheme resulted in more than 400 births at just one California hospital, Fountain Valley Regional. The hospital didn't reply to a request for comment.
Leave without paying hospital bills
Some Yous Win clients allegedly defrauded hospitals by not paying what they owe. They "either fail to pay annihilation or pay a greatly-reduced amount designed for indigent or low income patients lacking insurance," according to DHS.
Records obtained by the agency show the couple found to exist "credible tourists" paid merely $4,080 of a $28,845.29 medical nib from the California infirmary where their child was born. The expectant Chinese mother told the hospital that she was unemployed -- though she had listed a job on her original visa application.
DHS documents suggest the couple could have afforded to pay the total bill. They opened a Citibank business relationship inside weeks of arriving in the U.S. final Feb, and wired over $200,000 from Mainland china into the account. Plus, numerous charges were made from the account over the class of three months at places like the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel, Bose, Rolex in Costa Mesa and Louis Vuitton in Beverly Hills.
Canvas past immigration at the airport
In an undercover investigation, DHS establish that You Win employees not merely prep moms to pass the visa interview, but also railroad train them to articulate clearing once they arrive. "The before the better, in social club to conceal the pregnancy," 1 You Win agent said, according to government documents.
You Win even suggested that moms wing from China to places similar Hawaii before connecting to Los Angeles -- where immigration security is tighter.
California, in item, is popular with Chinese moms -- they have their selection of maternity hotels, and if their ties to the state deepen over fourth dimension, the children may be eligible for lower tuition rates at University of California schools.
According to the federal affidavits, You Win clients pay upward to $threescore,000 for the company'due south services. These firms ofttimes as well line up chauffeurs, meals, translators and sightseeing trips.
The long run
Once moms become a U.Southward. passport for their kid, they substantially have a ticket out of China if they abound weary of pollution, nutrient safety scares and political volatility. At 21, American-born children tin use to sponsor their parents for residency in the U.S.
While other foreigners also come up to the U.South. for the sole purpose of giving nativity, the Chinese appear to be the just group willing to pay high sums for the services of these birth tourism companies.
Following the raids carried out by DHS agents, websites linked to Y'all Win were taken offline. Multiple calls to numbers DHS linked to the company were unsuccessful. At least one of the phone numbers has been disconnected.
Source: https://money.cnn.com/2015/03/30/news/china-moms-birth-tourism-fraud/
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