NEW YORK — Wealthy Chinese are hiring U.S. women to serve as surrogates for their children, creating a small but growing business in $120,000 “designer” American babies for China’s elite.

Surrogacy agencies in China and the United States are catering to wealthy Chinese who want babies outside the country’s restrictive family planning policies, who are unable to conceive themselves or who are seeking U.S. citizenship for their children.

The possibility of emigration is another draw — U.S. citizens may apply for green cards for their parents when they turn 21.

While there are no figures for the total number of Chinese who have sought or used U.S. surrogates, agencies in both countries say demand has risen rapidly in the past two years.

U.S. fertility clinics and surrogacy agencies are creating Chinese- language Web sites and hiring Mandarin speakers.

Circle Surrogacy, based in Boston, has handled half a dozen Chinese surrogacy cases over the past five years, said John Weltman, its president.

“I would be surprised if you called me back in four months and that number hadn’t doubled,” he said. “That’s the level of interest we’ve seen this year from China and the very serious conversations we’ve had with people who I think will be joining us in the next three or four months.”

The agency, which handles about 140 surrogacy cases a year, 65 percent of them for clients outside the United States, is opening an office in California to serve clients from Asia better. Mr. Weltman said he hoped to hire a representative in Shanghai next year.

The increased interest from Chinese parents has created some cultural tensions.

U.S. agency staff members who ask that surrogates and the prospective parents develop personal relationships have been surprised by potential Chinese clients who treat surrogacy as a strictly commercial transaction.

In China, where surrogacy is illegal, some clients keep secret the fact that their babies were born to surrogates, going so far as to fake pregnancies, agents say.

Chinese interest in obtaining U.S. citizenship is not new. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives anyone born in the United States the right to citizenship. A growing number of pregnant Chinese women travel to America to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children by delivering there, often staying in special homes designed to cater to their needs.

While the numbers are unclear, giving birth in the United States is now so commonplace that it was the subject of a hit romantic comedy movie, “Finding Mr Right,” released in China in March.

Over all, the number of Chinese visitors to the United States nearly doubled in recent years, from one million in 2010 to 1.8 million in 2012, U.S. immigration statistics show.

Mr. Weltman said that prospective Chinese clients almost always want U.S. citizenship for their babies. Other agencies pointed to a desire to have children educated in the United States.

Some wealthy Chinese say they want escape routes overseas because they fear they will be the targets of public or government anger if there is more social unrest in China. There is also a perception that their wealth will be better protected in countries with a stronger rule of law.

At least one Chinese agent promotes surrogacy as a cheaper alternative to the American EB-5 visa, which requires a minimum investment in a job-creating business of $500,000.

While the basic surrogacy package Chinese agencies offer costs between as much as $200,000, “if you add in plane tickets and other expenses, for only $300,000, you get two children and the entire family can emigrate to the U.S.,” said a Shanghai-based agent.

That cost still means the surrogacy alternative is available only to the wealthiest Chinese.

Prospective parents typically pay the surrogate between $22,000 and $30,000, an agency fee of $17,000 to $20,000 and legal fees as high as $13,000. If egg donation is required, that can cost an additional $15,000 and prenatal care and delivery fees can run between $9,000 and $16,000.

Indeed, surrogacy in the United States is so expensive that in recent years hundreds of American parents have reportedly turned to surrogates in India.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/business/global/chinese-look-overseas-for-surrogates.html?partner=rss&emc=rss