US Citizenship Vs Indian citizenship for a newborn

[sangup]

Hi,

I got an opportunity to go to US on work visa for few months. My wife is currently pregnant. We are wondering if there would be significant benefits in having the delivery in the US itself. My wife can travel with me to the US on dependent visa. However, my work is estimated to end about 2-3 months after the expected delivery date. So, we will have to return to India with the newborn 2-3 months after the delivery.

I did some analysis and came up with pros and cons of my decisions.
Pros:

1. Great hospitals and better care
2. US citizenship

Cons:

1. Lot of uncertainties in getting the US birth certificate/passport/OCI within the short time frame of 2-3 months
2. Travel concerns for the newborn and the mother
3. Problems that come with maintaining US citizenship in India: periodic renewals, higher fees in schools and colleges (inputs from online forums only, no direct inputs from R2I people)  

I will very likely return to work in the US in year or two for another term. So, it is not a big deal to drop this opportunity and have the delivery in India itself. I'm mainly considering this if getting US citizenship for the baby will be worthwhile all the efforts.

Please share your inputs on pros/cons of raising kids in India with foreign-passport/OCI. 

[copco]

Natural born citizens cannot lose their citizenship easily. You don't have to 'maintain' citizenship. Unless you intentionally renounce citizenship (which can only be done after you turn 18) you do not lose your citizenship. For an upper middle class person, I'd say healthcare in India will be at par with USA. There are a lot of big problems in healthcare in USA which you don't face in India.

 

I had a few classmates in college who were born in USA but did their schooling and undergrad in India. Fees might be higher but I am not sure how much. I do believe many colleges have quotas for NIRs/PIOs. OCI card and/or US passport will be the tough thing to get within 3 months. 

 

 

[pontevecchio]

Do you actually have Health Insurance through the company which covers her Pregnancy and delivery?

[JoeF]

I second pontevecchio here.

If there are.complications during pregnancy or delivery, things can get REALLY expensive. It is important to have good health insurance. Pretty much all decent companies, at least in the IT world, have group health insurance (they wouldn't be able to attract good people without that.)

So, check with your employer about health insurance.

[Alexander-2017]

The newborn will get birth certificate immediately. The passport will take more than a month usually and there is no such thing called maintaining citizenship so no implications from the US side. US citizenship will have no positive or negative impact on the newborn or parents. It won't help you in getting visa in the future faster etc and it has no positive or negative impact when it comes to maintaining your statues if you come here later for work, apply for LPR, etc. 

Also, public schools are free here for everyone regardless of citizenship. So, if you move here to work and get GC, then your kid at that time can go to the school for free regardless of citizenship.

[sangup]

@copco Thanks. I'm also quite skeptical about getting OCI within that short time frame. hence hesitating to go in that direction. I can apply for OCI and also for entry visa while OCI application is pending. Entry visa for minors can be obtained with 5 year validity if OCI has been applied and pending, but duration of stay is limited to one year only. So the baby can stay in India for duration of more than 1 year iff OCI is approved.

@pontevecchio Yes, my employer provided healthcare insurance covers the pregnancy as well. I doubled checked that with the insurance provider too. There are some expenses to meet the deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, but I'm ok with that.

[sangup]

@JoeF and @Alexander-2017 Thanks for your inputs.