Anyone deliver your baby out of the country?

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

I am an American citizen living in Mexico along the Mexico/Texas border, I am about 20 min from Texas. My dp does not have the papers to enter the US. He must wait 8 more years to re-apply. It's a very long story, so him getting a visa to the US is not an option.
I have delivered my last 2 babies in the US, with out my DP. We are thinking to have another baby and I loath for him to be at the birth. However, I'm not sure about all the work one must go through to make your born out of the country baby a American citizen.
I have had one home birth and would love to have another one. I know a midwife who may cross over into Mexico to be at my birth, not 100% sure though. But what issues did you run into and was it worth it? I'm also concerned about taking my baby across the border if I did have an emergency and not having the proper paper work. I dont want to feel stuck here in Mexico until the proper paper work is filled. KWIM?

[hunterofkyle]

I had a homebirth in Mexico 15 months ago.

I have no clue how you would do it without hiring a local midwife or OB. In order to get our US paperwork processed, we had to produce a Mexican birth certificate. We had an OB come to our home for the delivery and he filled out the form that we needed for the birth registration.

I didn't want to wait in Mexico for all of the paperwork to be processed and the border agents were accommodating. I think the man who stopped our car did have to run in and talk to his supervisor, but you would have to have something proving the baby is yours and I don't think they would accept less than a Mexican birth certificate for that purpose. You would definitely be unable to fly back to U.S. without the proper U.S. documentation.

If you are seriously considering birthing in Mexico, I would recommend hiring/bribing a local doctor to fill out the form for you (assuming you did have a US midwife attend the birth) and getting your Mexican cert and U.S. report of birth abroad filed for ASAP. We waited several months to do it and it was a huge stressor.

I actually remember saying that if there was a next time I would rather go back to the states and not have to deal with the consulate process. I know each consulate can interpret the requirements for the process differently. I had an easier time by taking my baby to the consulate in Tijuana than some of our friends did at the Guadalajara consulate. You can find the requirements for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad listed on the individual consulates' websites.

Good luck!

[Bellabaz]

You are an american citizen and so your kids will be one. In my case, I had to prove that I had lived in the US for at least 4 (or 5?) years. I basically just showed my college and maybe my high school transcripts and some pay stubs from after university. It wasn't a big deal as long as you have or can get those documents easily. Check with the regulations for mexico btu I wouldn't expect it to be very different.

[lalaland42]

I had a baby 5 months ago in Europe (I live here) so I can tell you a little about it.

My baby has a Swiss birth cert, filled out by the hospital according to Swiss standards. If I had a hb (the hb mw was on holiday when I had bb), I would just have to show up with the baby at the local office. As soon as I got his birth cert - due to a snafu it took 2.5 months - I went to the American embassy and filled out the Consular Report of Birth Abroad. Contact your local consulate for info on this. I also filed for a passport at the same time. About a month later I received a piece of paper stating the baby is an American citizen and his passport. Done.

There is one small catch. The baby has to live in the US for a certain amount of time. If he doesn't and he doesn't marry an American, his kids will not be Americans.

All and all it took 5 months to get the passport but we couldn't leave Switzerland until we did so. On the flip side, if you go into the US and have the baby there, I don't see why you would be able to go back to Mexico before you receive the baby's passport.

HTH

[BaaBaa]

we had DD in costa rica because dh couldnt be in the USA (visa reasons) and his home country is not natural birth friendly.

ITS WAS THE BEST THING WE EVER DID AND WE WILL LEAVE THE USA TO HAVE #2!

We wanted a home birth but ended up laboring at home and birthing in a hospital with a homebirth friendly DR because we didnt want to deal with the paper work involved and waiting time to process those things. I went 100% natural, the Dr. was great, as in VERY hands off, which is exaclty what i wanted.

DD was home again the same afternoon. We had to go to the USA embassy 3x for paperwork, and the costa rican offices about 3x. They helped us figure out what we needed. Its was wonderful

GOOD LUCK! Enjoy!

[Pippi L.]

Originally Posted by Bellabaz

You are an american citizen and so your kids will be one. In my case, I had to prove that I had lived in the US for at least 4 (or 5?) years. I basically just showed my college and maybe my high school transcripts and some pay stubs from after university. It wasn't a big deal as long as you have or can get those documents easily. Check with the regulations for mexico btu I wouldn't expect it to be very different.

If both parents are American it is relatively easy (so I've heard at least). However, if only one parent is American it's more of a pain. For my daughter to get her citizenship I need to prove that I have spent a certain number of years in the States after my 14th birthday. I barely qualify to pass on my citizenship because I went to university and a year of high school outside the States. I need transcripts from my high schools and the year I was at an American university. Then I need to go the consulate here in Vancouver with my daughter and my non-American husband for an interview. It's a real pain. I haven't done it yet.

So my advice to the OP is to look carefully at what is required to get your baby US citizenship. Make sure you have all the documentation you need before the baby is born because going through all of that with a newborn would be a real pain! Good luck! It sounds like a tricky situation.