Many immigrants come into California to seek citizenship and the American dream. Those who have children will want to bring them over as well. Some of those children might have even been conceived through assisted reproductive technology or ART. Recently, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its policy regarding such children.
What is the basis of the policy?
The USCIS policy originally questioned whether children born outside of the U.S. through fertility surrogacy and other ART methods should be considered to be born in wedlock. The policy was recently updated to now consider those children as being born in wedlock if they were born to married parents. However, there is another requirement: at least one parent would have to have either a genetic or gestational relationship with the child.
In other words, if a child born outside of the U.S. was born through fertility surrogacy from a donor egg and donor sperm, they would not be considered born in wedlock.
What else is required through the new USCIS policy?
The USCIS has also added to what the criteria of a child means, including children of U.S. citizens who are married to the genetic or gestational parent at the time of the child’s birth.
Same-sex couples can significantly benefit from the recent USCIS changes regarding children born through fertility surrogacy, in vitro fertilization, sperm donor and other forms of ART. Before the change was implemented, the genetic parents of a child had to be married in order for the child to be considered born in wedlock. Children who were born through ART were considered as being born out of wedlock.
The changes are to ensure that all families are treated fairly and have the same level of access when seeking citizenship in the country. Previously, there have been problems for families that included same-sex parents. The USCIS aims to change that with this new policy.