Immigration attorney Charles Kuck, whose firm recently hired a former consular officer, described a rule that surprises many applicants: consular officers can deny a B-2 visitor visa to someone they believe is traveling primarily to give birth in the United States.
mic What the Attorney Says
“Consular officers have instructions to deny visas to anybody who’s visibly pregnant. Deny visitor visas to them. Not H-1Bs or Ls or other work visas, but deny visitor visas to people visibly pregnant.”
The rule behind this is 22 CFR 41.31, amended in 2020, which tells officers to refuse a B visa if they have reason to believe the primary purpose of the trip is to obtain U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth here. It does not ban pregnant travelers outright, and it does not touch work visas. But a visible pregnancy is what prompts the officer to probe purpose, and it stacks on top of the ordinary INA 214(b) presumption that a visa applicant intends to immigrate.
mic What the Attorney Says
“If they’re visibly pregnant, probably shouldn’t give them a B2.”
If you are pregnant and have a genuine, temporary reason to travel (a real business trip, a family event, tourism with a firm return plan), the answer is to be ready to prove that purpose, not to hide the pregnancy. What sinks a case is misrepresentation: telling the officer one thing while planning another. That is the same trap behind putting a partner on a tourist visa and misstating intent on the DS-160, and it compounds the way it does when birth tourism collides with a later F-1 or green card filing. Even small signals of intent to stay, like not holding a round-trip ticket, weigh against you at the window.