State Dept Ends Policy Denying Citizenship To Children Born Abroad To Gay Parents

The U.S. State Department has reversed a Trump-era policy of denying U.S. citizenship to children born abroad to gay parents via assisted reproductive technologies. From Axios:

The Trump administration had denied citizenship to children born abroad to same-sex parents in several cases.

The State Department under Trump defended a long-standing policy that categorized children born abroad via surrogate as “out of wedlock” even when a couple was married.

Several same-sex couples sued the agency for their children’s citizenship, but the State Department continued to enforce the policy.

Under the new policy, children born abroad to parents, at least one of whom is a U.S. citizen and who are married to each other at the time of the birth, will be U.S. citizens from birth if they have a genetic or gestational tie to at least one of their parents and meet the INA’s other requirements. I reported on several lawsuits by gay parents during the Trump years whose children were denied citizenship.

The State Department will now grant U.S. citizenship to children born abroad through surrogacy and IVF — a shift from the Trump administration, which denied it to children born abroad to same-sex parents in several cases. https://t.co/YiCYFVnfem

— Axios (@axios) May 18, 2021