Giving birth abroad has been something we’ve been thinking about since backpacking Europe. We discovered the rest of the world is not very accommodating to people with US passports, since we are so strict with immigration here in the States.
We also thought dual citizenship would be an extremely cool/useful/valuable gift we could give our children. After ruling out Europe and Canada, we found Costa Rica.
Our tickets and AirBnb is booked, and appointments are made. This is happening for real!
We’re not the first people to do this:
https://www.ticotimes.net/2015/08/15/west-side-birth-story-isla-arrives-at-cima
https://www.american-european.net/article-moving-to-costa-rica-while-pregnant-297.html
https://puravidaculture.com/having-a-baby-in-costa-rica/
https://familyfreedomproject.com/having-baby-costa-rica/
https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/Giving_Birth_Again_at_Hospital_CIMA_in_Costa_Rica.cfm
Be careful! As a dual citizen I have really begun to see the negatives of my situation. Countries are increasingly regarding dual citizens as second class citizens and many have made it easier to strip citizenship from dual citizens. There is really not a ton to be gained from Costa Rican citizenship. It’s easy enough to become a citizen or resident there, and the dual citizenship weakens American citizenship rights. Being born in the US would have made my life a ton easier, that’s for sure, even with a US citizen parent. It’s a romantic notion, but the reality is more complex.
Costa Rica has great medical care, but (god forbid) your child needs extensive time in the NICU they simply can’t provide the services the US can. It’s not an unreasonable choice if you are healthy, just realize you are assuming a risk and consider whether you would want to be medevaced to the US or if you are comfortable with the basic care provided in Costa Rica.
Good luck and best wishes for good health!
Oh, also, not sure if you have been to Costa Rica but it’s not a great place to learn Spanish.
But good luck!!
Hi! We stumbled across you on youtube (my husband found Mike’s woodworking initially and turns out we’ve got a lot of similar philosophies on other things as well) and just saw this video about your plan to give birth in Costa Rica. A couple/few of thoughts:
1) Congrats on the little guy!
2) Enjoy the adventure! Thank God you’re not really in control, but that He is! 🙂
3) If you’re ever in/near Charlotte, NC, feel free to swing by and spend a night of a few. We’ve got an almost 7 year old son, an almost one year old daughter and a shop out back 🙂
4) One of my best friends from high school and her husband used her maternity leave to test the waters of living abroad (they went to Spain) and she gave birth there. They (Kasey and Erik Prato) wrote a book about the experience https://www.amazon.com/The-Baby-Voyage-Adventure-Maternity/dp/1493559788 It’s an easy read and I bet you would appreciate some of the humor – especially the telling people what they were planning part. I’m betting you’ve had some of the same conversations 🙂 (They actually went back to have their second as well and stayed!)
Oh – and I forgot –
5) Costa Rica is a really awesome trip. It’s beautiful! If you see brown dog in Tamarindo, tell him I said Hi! La Paz Waterfall Gardens was definitely a splurge in our travel budget, but worth it (for us!) . Those hummingbirds were so cool. And buena suerte con aprendiendo espanol. Cuando fuimos a un restaurante con “Harry” – un amigo nuevo en Costa – para comer con los “locales” – todos estaban de los Estados Unidos o Canada 🙂 Mi amiga que fue a Espana atendio una escuela de lenguas que a ella le gusto mucho para aprender rapidamente. (Sorry I can’t find the ~ over the n or the accent on this keyboard set up!)
Thank you so much for this book recommendation! We bought and read the whole thing in one sitting. Their experience is eerily similar to ours so far.
Congrats! I’m looking forward to see those Costa Rica videos.