What is the legal context for surrogacy in China, at a high level?
Status as of [date], reviewed by counsel.
This page is for intended parents who live in mainland China and are considering gestational surrogacy in the United States. It explains how a Private Label Surrogacy (PLS) journey works when you live in China. It is not legal advice about Chinese law. Every statement here about Chinese regulation, travel documents or foreign exchange is a high-level summary, and your own attorney in China advises you on your situation.
Chinese health regulations prohibit medical institutions from performing surrogacy, which is why Chinese families who choose surrogacy look abroad. How a child born through surrogacy abroad is treated at home varies in practice, and depends on documents such as the US birth certificate, the US parentage order and DNA evidence.
Before you sign anything with PLS, talk to an attorney in China. PLS refers you to counsel in China if you do not have one. Bring these questions to the first meeting:
- How will a child born to us through gestational surrogacy in the US be treated when we return?
- Which US documents will we need at home, and do they need an apostille, a certified translation or consular legalization?
- Does it matter which of us is the genetic parent, or whether donor eggs or sperm are used?
- What DNA evidence might be requested, by whom, and when?
- How do foreign-exchange rules affect how we fund the journey?
- How and when do we register the child after we return?
Write the answers down and share them with Jan Telman Berman, PLS's Global Surrogacy Coordinator. They shape the order of every step that follows.
Why do Chinese parents choose the US and Illinois?
Three reasons come up in almost every first consultation: an enforceable agreement, a published medical standard, and money you can verify.
An enforceable agreement. The Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act, in force since 2005, makes a compensated gestational surrogacy agreement enforceable when its requirements are met, and provides for the intended parents' parentage before the birth. PLS places surrogates in surrogacy-friendly US states, and the law of the state where the surrogate lives and delivers applies to each journey.
A medical standard. PLS was founded in 2017 by Nancy Block, RN, who spent 17 years as an OB/GYN and fertility nurse and staff educator at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, reads every surrogate candidate's prenatal and delivery records and writes a physician medical summary that goes to your fertility clinic. PLS works with 14 partner fertility centers, including Kindbody, Shady Grove Fertility, Fertility Centers of Illinois and Oregon Reproductive Medicine.
Money you can verify. Every dollar for the surrogate and third-party services sits with an independent licensed escrow agent, not with PLS.
PLS also has direct experience with Chinese families. Nancy has spoken at assisted reproduction conferences in China, as well as in the US, Israel and Europe. Jan has coordinated national and international cycles for more than 18 years. Natalie Gaudio-Fricano, one of PLS's two case managers, delivered a baby boy for an international couple in 2016 as a gestational surrogate, after a first-transfer success.
Plan on 18 to 24 months from signing to birth. The total typically runs $150,000 to $210,000 in US dollars, including clinic fees and insurance. Today it takes about 9 months from signing to meeting a surrogate; PLS's target is 6 months or fewer.
What visas do parents need for the clinic visit and the birth?
Intended parents from mainland China typically travel on a US B-1/B-2 visitor visa, both for the clinic visit to create embryos and for the birth. Your US immigration attorney confirms the right visa for your situation.
Most Chinese families make two trips. The first is set by your clinic's IVF calendar. The second is set by the surrogate's due date. Everything in between, including matching, can happen by video.
| Stage | What happens | When | Typical time in the US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa | US B-1/B-2 visitor visa for each parent | Before the first trip | None |
| Embryo creation trip | Egg retrieval or sperm collection and IVF at a US clinic; embryos frozen at that clinic | Early in the journey, often during matching | Set by your clinic's calendar [typical weeks to confirm with Jan] |
| Remote matching | Nancy presents surrogate profiles; match meeting by video | About 9 months from signing today, target 6 or fewer | None |
| Legal and medical foundations | Attorneys draft the agreement; escrow is funded; clinic screening | 1 to 2 months | None |
| Transfer | Medical cycle, then embryo transfer; pregnancy test 9 to 11 days later | 2 to 3 months | Discuss with Jan [typical attendance to confirm with Jan] |
| Birth trip | Arrive before the due date; hospital birth plan names you as the parents | Third trimester | [typical weeks to confirm with Jan] |
| Consular travel document | Chinese travel document or visa for the child, issued by the consulate before departure | After the US passport | [typical weeks to confirm with counsel] |
Can embryos or gametes be shipped from China?
Embryos cannot be exported from China, so Chinese families create their embryos at a US fertility clinic. Whether eggs or sperm can be shipped from China is a question for your counsel in China and your US clinic; plan on creating embryos in the US.
Your first decision is the clinic. PLS works with 14 partner centers and will introduce you. Your clinic schedules the retrieval, creates and freezes the embryos, and later performs the surrogate's medical screening and the transfer. If you need an egg donor, PLS can arrange the match ($11,000, or $8,500 when combined with a PLS surrogacy journey).
The medical sequence after match runs in this order:
- Dr. Silverberg's physician medical summary of the surrogate's records goes to your clinic.
- The clinic screens the surrogate.
- The attorneys sign the agreement and you fund escrow. Nothing medical starts before both.
- The surrogate's medical cycle takes 2 to 3 months.
- The clinic transfers one of your embryos. The pregnancy test follows 9 to 11 days after transfer.
How does the baby travel to China: US passport plus Chinese travel document
After the birth, the hospital records the birth and the state issues a US birth certificate. The family then applies for the child's US passport. Before departure, the family applies to the Chinese consulate for a Chinese travel document or visa for the child.
A federal executive order dated August 6, 2026, on citizenship for children born through compensated surrogacy to two non-citizen parents is under litigation. It may affect whether a child born in the US to two Chinese citizen parents receives a US passport. Status as of [date], reviewed by counsel. Read the current status on the executive order page before you plan the birth trip.
PLS prepares the US side of this path. That means coordinating the timing of the parentage filing with both attorneys, making sure the hospital knows who the intended parents are before labor, and keeping a checklist of the documents your counsel in China has asked for. Your US and Chinese attorneys handle the filings themselves. The citizenship and passport page explains the US documents in more detail.
How are funds wired and protected?
You pay in US dollars by international wire, and the money goes to an independent licensed escrow agent, not to PLS.
- At match: $10,000 into escrow.
- Before medications start: the balance of the surrogate's compensation package and third-party costs.
- Third-party costs of $15,300 to $29,000 cover both attorneys, escrow administration, the surrogate's psychological evaluation, background checks, insurance review, travel and local monitoring.
- The PLS program fee is paid to PLS in three parts: at signing, at surrogate acceptance and at medical clearance. The fee is $47,500. It is paid $22,500 at signing, $20,000 at surrogate acceptance and $5,000 at medical clearance.
- IVF and clinic fees are paid directly to your clinic.
Chinese foreign-exchange limits may require planning, and your bank and escrow agent can advise. Start that conversation with your bank before you sign with PLS, because the $10,000 escrow deposit is due at match.
You may choose your own escrow company. PLS refers to independent licensed agents and has no ownership or fee interest in any of them. The escrow agent pays the surrogate and vendors on the schedule in the agreement and sends you a statement of every disbursement. In late 2025 the Surro Connections agency collapsed, and the SEAM escrow failure involved more than $16 million. PLS has always used independent escrow. See currency and escrow for international parents.
How does PLS support Mandarin-speaking parents?
PLS arranges interpreters for match meetings and medical appointments, and Jan Telman Berman coordinates Mandarin-speaking interpreters and counsel. Current language coverage is being confirmed with Jan.
What the support consists of:
- One coordinator. Jan manages your cycle from signing through departure and is your contact for clinic, attorney and travel questions.
- Matching by Nancy. Nancy runs matching personally.
- A case manager for the pregnancy. Natalie Gaudio-Fricano or Jenni Symons, both former surrogates, carries your active match through the pregnancy.
- Care for the surrogate you can see. Julie Bendix, MPH, RD, a registered dietitian and lactation counselor, gives each surrogate at least six nutrition consults across the journey.
- Calls scheduled across the time difference. Match meetings, clinic calls and updates are booked for hours that work in China.
Sources
- Private Label Surrogacy program terms: escrow funding schedule, timeline and cost ranges.
- Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act (2005), Illinois General Assembly. Pending review by counsel.
- Chinese health regulations on surrogacy, summarized at a high level. Pending review by counsel in China.
- Federal executive order of August 6, 2026, on citizenship for children born through compensated surrogacy. Under litigation; pending review by counsel.