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Geckoman
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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 Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:36 am Post subject: Korean Tours to Guam for U.S. Citizenship Babies Uncovered! |
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Koreans going to Guam, USA, to have their baby be born with U.S. citizenship has been going on since forever, making the American press every couple of years.
I once had a student who told me that his cousin was born in Guam via such a scheme.
Guam is only a four hour flight from Seoul. Who knew America was so close to Korea. In terms of time difference, Guam is one hour ahead of Korea.
Koreans also go to Saipan, which is the largest island of the U.S. territory called the Northern Mariana Islands, which is just north of Guam, to do the same thing.
Here is a recent article about it. To read it go to http://www.guampdn.com/article/20081029/NEWS01/810290345/-1/NEWSFRONT2 or see below.
Folks will do anything for a "Born in U.S.A." baby. 
American citizenship = priceless. 
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Tours sell citizenship: 2 Web sites target expectant South Korean mothers
October 29, 2008
By Bryan C. Sualog
Pacific Daily News
The Guam Memorial Hospital and a prominent Guam doctor said they've been approached separately by tour agents about bringing in pregnant South Korean tourists who want their babies born on Guam.
Babies born on Guam receive U.S. citizenship.
Two Web sites -- www.americanbaby.co.kr and www.guambaby.com -- advertise services for expectant Korean mothers to come to Guam to have their babies.
Dr. Thomas Shieh, an obstetrician and gynecologist, said he's been approached by tour agents about contracting to deliver babies from Korean citizens.
He said it's been going on for a while. He was contacted four years ago and then again this summer. He turned down the offers both times.
Shieh said he'll provide his services to tourists if they need help medically.
"But I don't contract out specifically for that purpose," he said.
As a naturalized citizen who was born in Taiwan, Shieh said he understands how precious U.S. citizenship is.
"I think getting U.S. Citizenship is a good opportunity. However, I think we have to look at the proper channels," Sheih said. "And you don't really know what happens after they leave Guam. These babies born here, are they taken back to Korea? Are they sold to adoption agencies? You don't know. There's no way to actually confirm that."
Shieh said he checked with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and he was told the agency was aware of the issue and was investigating it.
Jane Flores, the hospital's acting chief financial officer, said she was aware of what was going on because she was contacted by a representative of www.guambaby.com .
Flores said expectant mothers must pre-register at the hospital and pay a $2,000 deposit in the event they have a difficult birth. The representative tried to make arrangements for an exception to the fee.
"They were arguing that they're here just to have their babies and then they leave. They don't want to pay the deposit," Flores said.
The sites have photos of the facilities available in Guam, including housing accommodations, Guam Memorial Hospital, and the birthing center Sagua Ma�agu.
Sagua Ma�agu General Manager Lina Leon Guerrero said the birthing center didn't authorize the use of the photos of its facilities or staff.
"People have brought it to our attention and the worst part of it is we don't speak Korean, so we don't know what it says," she said.
Leon Guerrero said the pictures could have been taken by patients or scanned from previous ads.
She said that if patients come to the clinic and want to deliver at the birthing center, they can if they meet the criteria. A patient has to be healthy and have a local doctor with privileges at the clinic.
The site Americanbaby.co.kr goes as far as to outline a step-by-step process for expectant moms:
Step 1: Get prenatal care in South Korea;
Step 2: Give birth at Guam Memorial Hospital;
Step 3: Get a passport and Social Security number in Guam within a week after birth; and
Step 4: Go back to Korea in two to three weeks.
The Pacific Daily News called the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Guam for comment. The U.S. Attorney didn't respond as of 7 p.m. yesterday. The immigration agency stated, as a matter of policy, that it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation and forwarded inquiries to its public affairs office in Los Angeles, which didn't respond as of 7 p.m. yesterday.
Each of the Web sites has Guam phone numbers and Guam office addresses, but when the Pacific Daily News called those numbers, the calls weren't answered or the person who answered hung up when informed the call was being made by the PDN.
Source: Pacific Daily News; October 29, 2008; http://www.guampdn.com/article/20081029/NEWS01/810290345/-1/NEWSFRONT2 |
Last edited by Geckoman on Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:00 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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Geckoman
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:48 am Post subject: Follow-up |
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Here is a follow-up article.
Go to http://www.guampdn.com/article/20081030/NEWS01/810300307 or see below.
| Quote: |
Korean baby Web site goes down
October 30, 2008
By Bryan C. Sualog
Pacific Daily News
One of the two Korean-language Web sites encouraging pregnant South Korean women to deliver their baby in Guam is no longer working.
The site, www.americanbaby.co.kr, went down yesterday morning and as of 6 last night still wasn't working.
The site, along with www.guambaby.com, advertised services that would have expectant mothers from South Korea come to Guam to have their babies so that the newborns would be given U.S. citizenship.
Photos of facilities available on Guam, including housing accommodations, the Guam Memorial Hospital and clinics, were available on www.americanbaby.co.kr. It also had photos posted of the facilities and staff at Sagua Ma�agu and FHP.
Sagua Ma�agu General Manager Lina Leon Guerrero said the birthing center didn't authorize the use of the photos of its facilities and staff.
Gus Sablan, TakeCare senior vice president of business development and marketing, said he wasn't aware the Web sites were using photos of FHP, but wouldn't comment any further.
A step-by-step process was laid out on www.americanbaby.co.kr:
Step 1: Get prenatal care in South Korea;
s Step 2: Give birth at Guam Memorial Hospital;
Step 3: Get a passport and Social Security number in Guam within a week after birth; and
s Step 4: Go back to Korea in two to three weeks.
Obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Thomas Shieh said he was approached on two separate occasions by tour agents about bringing in the pregnant women. Shieh was contacted about four years ago and then again this past summer about contracting to deliver babies for Korean citizens.
He said he turned down the offers both times because he questioned the ethics and legality of what he was approached to do.
Shieh also said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office told him it was aware of the issue and was investigating it.
Jane Flores, the hospital's acting chief financial officer, said she was contacted by a representative of www.guambaby.com. Flores said expectant mothers must pre-register at the hospital and pay a $2,000 deposit in the event they have a difficult birth. The representative tried to make arrangements for an exception to the fee.
Mae Blas, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office, yesterday said her office couldn't comment yesterday, but that it would get back to the Pacific Daily News.
Source: Pacific Daily News; October 30, 2008; http://www.guampdn.com/article/20081030/NEWS01/810300307 |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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It's a great idea. Koreans pay rack rates for hospital services. They fill hotels. Jobs. Those US dollars Americans send for tvs, Koreans bring back and give them to doctors, nurses, hotel clerks, etc.
What's the cost to the USA? |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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More "citizens" who will qualify for government money for education, medical services, social security, etc... without ever ONCE paying a cent of taxes into the system. Yeah, there's definitely a COST to the USA.  |
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cobright
Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Location: Rochester Hills, MI
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:53 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
What's the cost to the USA? |
Huge entitlement costs when these "babies" retire to the states in 60 years. |
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sojourner1
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Location: Where meggi swim and 2 wheeled tractors go sput put chug alugg pug pug
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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So a foreign non-American couple can visit US soil to have a baby to the baby an American citizen?
It seems silly that you become American just from being born there. It's the same baby whether it was born in Seoul or flown in the mothers womb elsewhere. I thought your parents had to have citizenship otherwise your parents are suppose to register you as a new citizen in your home country while registering you in the US as an alien immigrant.
Of course, when a Korean becomes 18, they have to make a choice in the case of dual citizenship. |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Much of the attraction for doing that was that the child could be exempt from military service. As I understand it, the law changed on that a year or two ago. Now they still must serve. |
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reactionary
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Location: korreia
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