Where to have the baby? Mexico or US?

[wjp 2]

Me (US Citizen by birth) and my Mexican wife (has visitor visa/BCC, we will be married 2 years as of next month) are planning on having a child. We are currently living in Mexico while I work towards my citizenship here and she levels up her English, since she's terrified about interviews in English. After that's done we were planning on working on her documents for the United States (she only has a border crossing card at the moment)

 

So, my ultimate goal is for my family to be able to freely flip back and forth residence in US/Mexico as my work requires.

 

Our preference is to remain in Mexico and for me to continue to work remotely consulting in the United States, but since finding clients that accept remote work isn't a guarantee, I expect we'll need to live in the US at some point in the future, or at minimum for the duration of her naturalization process when we get to that.

 

So we discussed it and we were planning to have the child here in Mexico, due to the better healthcare situation.

 

But recently I was reading on here, and saw that the US is proactively cancelling the US passports of US citizen children born abroad if they aren't residing in the US. That would throw quite a wrench in our plans, and I'm worried about getting into a mess of juggling trying to finding work for me, navigating her IR-1, and fighting USCIS for some kind of admission for the child.

 

Is it a better idea to have the child on US soil? Are they only going after the children of naturalized citizens, or does this affect everyone?

 

Also, if my wife becomes a naturalized US citizen, will she be stripped of citizenship if we spend too much time in Mexico?

Edited April 16 by wjp
clarification

[Dashinka 24,483]

I am not sure it really matters other than if born in Mexico you will need to complete the CRBA process, but if born in the US, you will need to get a passport ASAP (six of one...).  I haven't heard any stories of children having their citizenship revoked other than this recent thread (below).  In that case, it appears the issue was resolved and the child actually received their new passport.  I don't see any issue as long as you maintain your good tax standing with the US as there is no requirement for a USC to actually reside in the US, and if the US Federal government started revoking citizenship of USCs living abroad, there will be a lot of folks impacted.

 

Good Luck!

 

I am curious as I did a quick search of the US revoking citizenship of children born abroad, do you have any shareable sources for this topic?

 

 

[wjp 2]

I was reading this:

And also the link you posted. It made me panic and reconsider our whole plan, and here I am back in research mode.

 

Now that I've had time to calm down and process things more, I think it may not be something to worry about.

 

The theme of these cases seem to be about the child being born before the parents received citizenship, and that the child was in their home country with grandma or something. No concern of natural-born citizens, nor I suppose parents with children born after naturalization occurs. *phew*

 

You're right about the rush to get the passport if we had the baby in the US. With just the visitor's visa that's be super tight timing, arriving before a noticeable baby bump, and not leaving until the paperwork is done. Not to mention, that's a legal gray area at best, and not a game really worth playing since the baby gets citizenship by blood.

 

So, I'm back to going with the original plan. Have the baby in Mexico. It's much more calm and less expensive. The baby won't be able to become President of the United States, but that's OK, they can become President of Mexico if they're so inclined.

 

I answered my own question about her spending too much time in Mexico after naturalization...that's the whole point of naturalizing for many people, to avoid the surprise green card rug pull/revocation if they're abroad for more than 6 months.

Edited April 16 by wjp

[Dashinka 24,483]

Both this case and the case I posted are related to naturalization of a minor, which does not apply in your case.  It seems to relate to a narrow reading of an LPR's residency requirement when they naturalize through a parent.  I have not heard of any child that went through CRBA being revoked of their citizenship.

 

I still think this is not an issue for you.  If Mexico is more comfortable for your wife when giving birth, I would spend more time researching the CRBA process.

 

Good Luck!

[Crazy Cat 41,814]

3 hours ago, wjp said:

I expect we'll need to live in the US at some point in the future

The time to apply for a spousal visa will be about 18 before you want to actually live in the US. 

 

Edited April 16 by Crazy Cat

[randomstairs 303]

11 hours ago, wjp said:

they can become President of Mexico if they're so inclined

One of a very few cases when one can in fact lose a US citizenship is accepting a high public office in a foreign state. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/Loss-US-Nationality-Public-Office-in-Foreign-State.html

[Pleasework89 47]

Hi! I am a US citizen living with my spouse in his home country. Before I got pregnant, I made sure to familiarize myself with the CRBA requirements. Go to the US embassy/consulate website nearest to you and look into what you will need. There are different requirements for children born out of wedlock, married and between US/foreign and US/US parents. Since my spouse was not a US citizen, I had to provide 5 years worth of physical presence in the U.S. after the age of 14. I did the simplest thing on their criteria list and used my high school/college transcripts. The whole process went smoothly and we also applied for our child's passport on the same visit which I was glad to do because when you apply for a passport you have to send original documents and the idea of losing the CRBA and trying to replace it... but with them being done together, no risk. We picked up the passport and CRBA a couple weeks later. There is no crazy USCIS processing time. It's smoother and quicker. 

 

*Also passport applications are processed faster (in my experience) when you apply at a consulate/embassy). 

Edited April 17 by Pleasework89