(UNITED STATES) — The State Department said it is acting “around the world” to stop birth tourism, dismantle related networks and target applicants who seek a U.S. visa mainly to give birth in the United States so a child obtains citizenship.

“The State Department is taking action around the world to stop this abuse, dismantle birth tourism networks, and hold accountable those who try to scam our system,” the department said.

The action rests on the current birth-tourism rule in the B visa regulations, a change that took effect on January 24, 2020. Under that rule, consular officers must deny a B visa if they have reason to believe an applicant’s primary purpose is to give birth in the United States to secure U.S. citizenship for the child.

U.S. consular officers overseas apply the rule. It covers B nonimmigrant visa applicants suspected of birth tourism and also reaches applicants who seek entry for medical care.

That dual structure has shaped the rule since it took effect. One part addresses travel centered on childbirth, while the other governs medical-treatment cases by requiring applicants to show they have arranged treatment and can pay for it.

The State Department said consular officers had seen “an increasing number of B visa applicants whose stated primary purpose of travel is to give birth in the United States.” The department said the rule was intended to address birth tourism.

The measure does not extend to every foreign national who enters the United States for short visits. It does not apply to the 39 countries in the Visa Waiver Program.

That exclusion leaves the rule focused on people who need a B visa rather than travelers who enter under the waiver system. In practice, the screening falls to consular officers during overseas visa adjudications, not to a separate domestic review process described in the materials provided here.

The standard built into the rule turns on purpose. A consular officer does not deny a B visa simply because an applicant is pregnant; the rule directs denial when the officer has reason to believe the applicant’s primary purpose is to give birth in the United States to obtain citizenship for the child.

Medical-treatment applicants face a different burden under the same framework. They must show they have made arrangements for treatment and that they can pay for it, placing financial capacity and documented planning at the center of those cases.

The State Department’s statement frames the issue in enforcement terms, pairing the visa rule with a broader crackdown on what it described as abuse and organized networks. Its language goes beyond individual visa denials, pointing to an effort to dismantle birth tourism operations and hold participants accountable.

No later policy in the provided materials replaces the January 24, 2020 rule. The policy remains in effect in those materials, preserving the same consular standard for B visa cases tied to birth tourism and the same documentary demands for applicants who seek medical care.

The overlap between those two categories matters because both sit inside the same B visa framework. One applicant may be assessed on whether childbirth is the main reason for travel, while another must document treatment plans and payment ability; both decisions rest with officers overseas applying the same regulatory amendment.

State Department officials have tied the rule to a pattern they said consular posts were already seeing before the amendment took effect. Their description of “an increasing number of B visa applicants whose stated primary purpose of travel is to give birth in the United States” remains the clearest explanation in the provided materials for why the department adopted the rule and why it continues to enforce it.

The result is a policy that draws a sharp line inside the visitor visa system. Applicants whose primary purpose is childbirth in the United States fall on one side of that line and face denial, while applicants seeking medical treatment must clear another by proving arrangements and payment ability.

Birth tourism has long sat at the intersection of immigration screening and citizenship law, but the current State Department rule does not attempt to rewrite citizenship standards. It uses the B visa process instead, directing consular officers to examine intent before travel begins and to refuse the visa when that intent centers on giving birth in the United States.

That leaves overseas visa interviews as the main point of enforcement described in the materials. Consular officers, not travelers arriving from the 39 countries in the Visa Waiver Program, are the officials charged with applying a rule the State Department says remains in force as it pursues its crackdown on birth tourism networks worldwide.