Blog
Parental disputes over childhood vaccinations
Charlotte Stringer
Entering into an international surrogacy arrangement is becoming an increasingly popular option for prospective parent(s). This growing popularity is spurred on by the wider availability of global surrogacy services, high profile celebrity surrogate babies and increasing frustration with adoption services both domestic and foreign. As more children are born as the result of a surrogacy arrangement, family, immigration and nationality laws in the UK and across the globe have struggled to keep up with this developing area of law.
It is an indication of how popular this option has become that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has recently issued updated guidance on the immigration issues and procedures parents need to consider and follow to bring their child back to the UK. While the law in this area has not been updated, the new FCO guidance provides a more thorough and accessible explanation of what can be a complex area for new parents to navigate.
This guidance seeks to present a comprehensible path through nationality laws written long before international surrogacy became the popular choice it is today.
Faced with numerous legal issues, both in the country where the surrogacy is to take place, and the UK, the nationality and immigration position of the child can be forgotten or even taken for granted. However, as the newly issued guidance makes very clear, the immigration implications of your surrogacy arrangement ought to be a first consideration.
In particular, prospective commissioning parents need to be aware of and take action in respect of the following nationality and immigration issues:
As helpful as the new guidance is, it can only cover a limited number of scenarios and it doesn’t provide a clear route to the UK in more complex scenarios. Further, unless and until UK immigration requirements and nationality provisions are updated to reflect the special circumstances of surrogacy, there will always be an additional element of complexity in these scenarios as we try to fit children into a framework which was written without them in mind.
This guidance is a positive step for prospective commissioning parents, but it is not a substitute for seeking early, expert legal advice on the nationality and immigration considerations raised by a surrogacy arrangement and we would always advise those contemplating surrogacy to seek this advice at the earliest opportunity to help plan the most efficient and least burdensome resolution of these issues. Planning really is the key.
A copy of the FCO guidance “Surrogacy Overseas” can be found here.
We welcome views and opinions about the issues raised in this blog. Should you require specific advice in relation to personal circumstances, please use the form on the contact page.
Charlotte Stringer
Ilda de Sousa
Punam Sood
Skip to content Home About Us Insights Services Contact Accessibility
Share insightLinkedIn Twitter Facebook Email to a friend Print