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I have a question that's been confusing me while planning a trip to the United States.
My wife and I are Indian citizens, and we're thinking about visiting the USA on a B2 tourist visa. Someone recently told us that if a baby is born in the US, the child automatically becomes a US citizen, even if the parents are only tourists.
Is that actually true?
If an Indian couple visits the USA for tourism and the baby is born there during the trip, will the baby receive US citizenship? If yes, what happens regarding Indian citizenship? Can the child also get an Indian passport, or would the parents need to apply for an OCI card instead?
I'm not asking because we're planning this intentionally—I'm just trying to understand how the rules work in case something unexpected happens during travel.
Has anyone here gone through this situation or knows how it works in practice? I'd appreciate hearing about your experience.
From what I've read and discussed with other parents, the important point is that US citizenship for the baby doesn't give any immediate immigration benefit to the parents.
Some people think having a US-born child automatically gives the parents a Green Card, but that's not how it works.
The child is generally a US citizen at birth, but the parents remain on whatever visa they entered with. If anyone is in this situation, it's also worth checking the latest rules with the relevant authorities because citizenship and documentation requirements can change.
Yes, this happened to one of my relatives a few years ago. They were visiting the US from India on a tourist visa when their baby was born earlier than expected.
The baby became a US citizen by birth and later received a US passport. Since India doesn't generally allow dual citizenship in this situation, they didn't apply for an Indian passport. Instead, after getting the baby's US passport, they applied for an OCI card so the child could travel to and stay in India without needing a visa.
The parents' immigration status didn't change at all. They still had to follow the conditions of their tourist visas and return to India before their authorized stay expired.
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A friend of ours experienced this while visiting family in California. After the baby was born, they first obtained the baby's US birth certificate and US passport.
Later, they applied for an OCI card because the child was eligible through the parents' Indian origin. The OCI card made future trips to India much easier.
If anyone is in this situation, I'd recommend checking both the latest US documentation requirements and the current OCI eligibility criteria before applying, since individual cases can differ.