International Surrogacy Compliance for Agencies After the August 6 Executive Orders
The August 6 executive orders create new considerations for agencies handling international surrogacy cases. While federal implementation continues to develop, agencies should review their workflows and know when specialized legal guidance is needed.
This guide explains what has changed, what still requires legal interpretation, and when to involve counsel with both surrogacy and immigration experience. Early coordination can help you identify potential concerns before matching, embryo transfer, delivery, or international travel.
At Foster + Bloom, we help agencies navigate these evolving requirements and coordinate legal planning for international surrogacy journeys.
What Cross-Border Surrogacy Compliance Means for Agencies
Your agency does not need to interpret immigration law or provide immigration advice. You do need a process for recognizing when an international surrogacy journey requires specialized legal review.
That process should identify potential immigration, citizenship, parentage, and travel concerns early. When concerns arise, qualified counsel can step in before key milestones such as matching, embryo transfer, delivery, or international travel.
Clear referral procedures help your team stay within its role while giving intended parents access to appropriate legal guidance when timing matters.
How the Aug. 6 Executive Orders May Affect International Surrogacy
The August 6 executive orders address both birthright citizenship and travel to the United States for childbirth. One order specifically addresses certain commercial surrogacy arrangements involving a U.S. surrogate when neither parent is a U.S. citizen.
A separate order directs the Departments of State and Homeland Security to take action concerning “birth tourism” involving nonimmigrant visas.
For agencies, these signed policies warrant careful attention, but their application to individual surrogacy journeys requires legal analysis. Federal implementation guidance, agency action, litigation, and each family’s circumstances can affect the legal assessment.
At Foster + Bloom, we can evaluate these developments as they relate to your agency and the families you serve. Our attorneys can also help you determine when evolving federal policy requires changes to case planning, referrals, or cross-border coordination.
International Surrogacy Compliance Risks Agencies Should Review
International surrogacy can involve immigration documentation, citizenship planning, parentage recognition, and international travel. Agencies should recognize when these issues require specialized legal guidance.
Immigration Documentation
International intended parents may need visas or authorization through the Visa Waiver Program to travel to the United States. The appropriate requirements depend on each traveler’s circumstances. Immigration counsel can advise families on matters such as:
- Passports and Travel Documents: Documentation needed for international travel.
- Visa and Entry Requirements: Requirements for intended parents entering the United States.
- Immigration Filings: Federal applications or processes that may apply to the family.
- Consular Documentation: Procedures involving U.S. or foreign consulates.
Your agency’s role is to recognize when these questions arise and connect intended parents with qualified counsel.
Parentage and Citizenship Planning
A state parentage order establishes legal parentage under applicable state law. It does not independently determine a child’s federal citizenship or immigration status.
Reproductive and immigration counsel can address these separate legal frameworks before birth. This allows parentage, citizenship, and newborn documentation strategies to account for the family’s circumstances and jurisdictions involved.
Cross-Border Case Coordination
Once the appropriate attorneys are involved, your agency can keep the journey organized through clear communication and shared timelines.
Establish checkpoints around major milestones, such as matching, embryo transfer, delivery, and international travel. This keeps the intended parents, agency, and legal teams aligned as the journey progresses.
When Should Agencies Bring Immigration Counsel Into a Surrogacy Journey?
Immigration guidance provides the greatest value when it begins before immigration or travel questions become time-sensitive. Agencies can build referral checkpoints into several stages of an international journey:
- Initial Intake: Identify international intended parents and refer immigration or cross-border travel questions to qualified counsel.
- Before Matching: Give counsel time to evaluate potential visa, travel, citizenship, and documentation considerations that could affect planning.
- During the Journey: Revisit the immigration strategy when circumstances change or new legal questions arise.
- Before Delivery: Review anticipated newborn documentation, citizenship, and international travel requirements before the family needs to return home.
At Foster + Bloom, we can become involved early or step into an existing journey when immigration concerns arise. Earlier coordination gives your agency and intended parents more time to address potential complications before critical milestones.
Why Immigration Experience Matters More Than Ever
Surrogacy representation often focuses on state laws governing agreements and parentage. Immigration law is a distinct federal practice area with separate requirements involving visas, citizenship, and federal documentation.
International surrogacy journeys can involve both areas of law. Working with counsel who understands federal immigration requirements helps agencies recognize when specialized guidance is needed.
Immigration + Surrogacy Attorneys
How Foster + Bloom Helps Agencies Navigate International Surrogacy
At Foster + Bloom, we bring international surrogacy experience and federal immigration knowledge into one coordinated legal strategy.
Immigration practice is federally regulated, allowing our immigration attorneys to assist agencies and their clients across state lines. We can also collaborate with local reproductive counsel when state-specific guidance is needed.
For your agency, this provides continuity throughout an international journey. You have a legal resource that understands both cross-border family-building and the immigration issues that may arise along the way.
Best Practices for International Surrogacy Compliance in 2026
Your agency can build international compliance into existing case-management procedures. Focus on four areas that help your team identify concerns, coordinate professionals, and respond to changing requirements.
Immigration Referral Triggers
Establish clear criteria for when immigration counsel should become involved. Refer cases involving:
- Cross-Border Travel: Intended parents who will travel internationally during the journey or after delivery.
- Foreign Citizenship: Intended parents who are not U.S. citizens or whose child may have citizenship considerations abroad.
- Prior Immigration Concerns: Previous visa denials, entry issues, or other known immigration complications.
- Citizenship or Documentation Questions: Uncertainty involving the newborn’s citizenship, passport, or other travel documentation.
Your team can identify these triggers without evaluating the underlying immigration issue.
Documentation and Recordkeeping Standards
Create a consistent process for maintaining records your agency receives during international journeys. Depending on the case and your agency’s role, these may include parentage orders, relevant travel or consular documents, and communications with legal professionals.
Clear recordkeeping helps authorized professionals locate information when documentation is needed for a legal or immigration process.
Cross-Border Communication Workflows
Define who communicates with intended parents, reproductive counsel, and immigration counsel throughout the journey. Establish checkpoints around major milestones so each professional has the information needed for their role.
A shared case timeline can also help your team track legal, medical, documentation, and travel considerations without making legal determinations.
Ongoing Policy Monitoring and Compliance Reviews
Review your international case procedures periodically as federal immigration policies and agency guidance change. Update intake questions, referral triggers, documentation practices, and communication protocols when new requirements affect your workflow.
Foster + Bloom can help your agency evaluate policy developments and determine whether your international surrogacy procedures need to change.
Talk to Foster + Bloom About Cross-Border Surrogacy Compliance
International surrogacy requires careful coordination when immigration, parentage, citizenship, and cross-border travel intersect.
At Foster + Bloom, we work with agencies, attorneys, and surrogacy professionals navigating these complex journeys. Contact us today for guidance on your organization’s cross-border surrogacy workflows.