Canadian Pregnant with American bf

i am currentley on an f-1 visa right now of course i am the canadian my bf is american. i moved here to be with him and did not expect to get pregnant but thats okay i am happy. does anyone know anything about my situation. people keep telling me if i have my baby in the states i will then be dual citizen, of course my baby would be an american and i could then apply for a canadian visa for him/her. i know if i go back to canada and have my child my baby and myself will both still be considered canadian and this is a problem because that will not help with my boyfriend being able to be involved. I still have 2 years left on my visa and we were planning on stay in the states after my 2 years was up because of the NAFTA agreement would allow me to live here without citizenship. please if you have any information please let me know

NAFTA does not allow you to live in the US without citizenship, not sure what you're on about there, unless you're talking about applying for TN-1 status.

If you have a baby in the US, the baby will be a US citizen but that confers no advantage on you whatsoever, in fact it may make things harder for you because if you have a US boyfriend and a US citizen child the CBP will most likely decide you do not have non-immigrant intent and not allow you in.

The only real advantage of having a child in the US is that the child will be a dual-citizen, and you can claim the child tax credit on your 1040NR. (You don't need a visa for the child, because one parent is a Canadian citizen, and the first generation born abroad are Canadian citizens by birth - good idea to apply for a citizenship certificate though).

When your child reaches 21 they can sponsor you for immigration by filing an I-130.

There is a "hardship" provision that is rarely used, whereby a parent of a US citizen minor can be allowed to stay if it would cause hardship to the child to leave the US, but this is basically impossible for a Canadian to get.

If you want to stay in the US then the usual option in this situation is to get married and apply for AOS.

Steve is correct. Having your baby in the US offers you no specific benefit that would allow you to stay indefinitely, nor does NAFTA.

for marriage based immigration information see www.visajourney.com

yes i was talking about the TN status im studying to be a nurse and there are many many canadian nurses where i am that do not need citizenship to work here ... I was also looking at the hardship law and found a few canadian women who used that because i think a child growing up without a mother would be considered a hardship on the child but that could become quite costly because you need an immagration lawer i think.. not positive tho.

so anyways incase anyone else comes across this problem I will give you some advice. I'm not sure about any other state but in the state of Illinois medical is covered for all women who are pregnant with a child regarless of there status because the states has a new law called "no child left behind". Also applying for the "medicate" program that allows you the benifits will not affect your ablity to apply for citizenship. what will affect your ablity to apply for status would be using any gov't program such as food stamps.. so dont even go there! You can ask your student advisor or whomever you deal with at the school for an extra semester or quarter off and then continue with your schooling later on. I just want to let everyone know that marriage is not the only option here, but thanks for the advice.. and anyone going throught the same thing msg me cuz i would love to talk.

Considering you're not eligible to apply for citizenship, and won't ever be unless someone sponsors you sometime soon, I'm not sure where you're going with the comment about medicade.

I would look into that a lot further if I were you. You may jeopardize your student visa if you attempt to apply for medicade. They really have no problem deporting mothers and leaving US born babies here.

Have you considered getting married? Providing your BF met the income requirements, he could file to sponsor you as his wife. Take a read through http://www.visajourney.com

My understanding of the "hardship" provision is that it's not determined merely by the effect on the child of the mother being deported, it's also determined by the effect on the child of being forced to live in another country.

Making the child live in Canada does not result in any hardship to the child, so that's why it's so hard to get.

-- Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:39 am --

Coincidentally: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30220032/

ok i didnt fully understand the hardship thing thanks for the explaination.
I talked to the medicade office in Springfeild Illinois who gave me the okay and called the Illinois Collition for Immagration who gave me the okay and I also called another number which i cant remember the associations name and was given the okay. The new act "no child left behind" requires ALL PREGNANT WOMEN to have access to free healthcare for themselves for the duration of the preganancy and for the child till there 5 years old, regardless of there current status in the Unites States and this will not affect your status or future to get a citizenship. I dont know if this is in all of the US but i know thats the law in illinois. there are programs that women are automatically entered into like WIC (women infant and children) and they advised me that if i enter into those types of government funded programs then i will lose my status and will not be able to apply for any type of visa or citizenship. so if neone else is in this situation tell them your opting out for wic and all other gov't help. so trust me on this i talked to all the right people and women in illinois cannot have a baby in a hospital unless they have applied and received for there medicade card. also if you are on a visa and able to prove this the mother will recieve and extra 6 months of healthcare.

Yes, you are eligible for the Medicaid thing for young children because the child is a US citizen, I have a friend in Florida who was in that situation.

However the bureaucracy associated with it appears to be absolutely appalling, it took her the best part of a year to get her baby registered because of endless screw-ups.