Thread: South Korean Tourists To Enter Hawaii Sans Visas

Oct 31, 9:35 PM EDT


SOUTH KOREAN TOURISTS CAN ENTER HAWAII SANS VISAS NOV. 17



HONOLULU (AP) -- South Korean tourists can enter Hawaii without visas beginning Nov. 17.

Hawaii tourism liaison Marsha Wienert (WHY-nert) says Friday that she expects the 40,000 tourists that came from South Korea in the past year to double in the first year of the program and double again in 2010.

All a South Korean traveler will have to do is carry a new electronic passport and then register for travel authorization online.

Many Koreans have relatives in Hawaii and deep cultural ties to the state's large Korean-American communities.

President Bush decided two weeks ago to lift visa requirements for South Korean tourists. Citizens from other countries, including Great Britain and Japan, are already eligible to enter the country without visas.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/ ... SECTION=US

The Guam newspaper recently had a piece on Korean racketeers offering American birthright citizenship to Koreans by being having them give birth in Guam Memorial Hospital a Guam taxpayer subsidized hospital. The same thing has been happening in Hawaii and now it can happen much easier thanks to the generosity of Bush.

Originally Posted by Richard

The Guam newspaper recently had a piece on Korean racketeers offering American birthright citizenship to Koreans by being having them give birth in Guam Memorial Hospital a Guam taxpayer subsidized hospital. The same thing has been happening in Hawaii and now it can happen much easier thanks to the generosity of Bush.

Yeah, there are Korean "birth travel consultants" now. Has been for several years. This is outrageous.

TOURS SELL CITIZENSHIP;2 WEBSITES TARGET EXPECTANT SOUTH KOREAN MOTHERS

By Bryan C. Sualog • Pacific Daily News • October 29, 2008

The Guam Memorial Hospital and a prominent Guam doctor said they've been approached separately by tour agents about bringing in pregnant South Korean tourists who want their babies born on Guam.

Babies born on Guam receive U.S. citizenship.

Two Web sites -- www.americanbaby.co.kr and www.guambaby.com -- advertise services for expectant Korean mothers to come to Guam to have their babies.

Dr. Thomas Shieh, an obstetrician and gynecologist, said he's been approached by tour agents about contracting to deliver babies from Korean citizens.

He said it's been going on for a while. He was contacted four years ago and then again this summer. He turned down the offers both times.

Shieh said he'll provide his services to tourists if they need help medically.

"But I don't contract out specifically for that purpose," he said.

As a naturalized citizen who was born in Taiwan, Shieh said he understands how precious U.S. citizenship is.

"I think getting U.S. Citizenship is a good opportunity. However, I think we have to look at the proper channels," Sheih said. "And you don't really know what happens after they leave Guam. These babies born here, are they taken back to Korea? Are they sold to adoption agencies? You don't know. There's no way to actually confirm that."

Shieh said he checked with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and he was told the agency was aware of the issue and was investigating it.

Jane Flores, the hospital's acting chief financial officer, said she was aware of what was going on because she was contacted by a representative of www.guambaby.com.

Flores said expectant mothers must pre-register at the hospital and pay a $2,000 deposit in the event they have a difficult birth. The representative tried to make arrangements for an exception to the fee.

"They were arguing that they're here just to have their babies and then they leave. They don't want to pay the deposit," Flores said.

The sites have photos of the facilities available in Guam, including housing accommodations, Guam Memorial Hospital, and the birthing center Sagua Mañagu.

Sagua Mañagu General Manager Lina Leon Guerrero said the birthing center didn't authorize the use of the photos of its facilities or staff.

"People have brought it to our attention and the worst part of it is we don't speak Korean, so we don't know what it says," she said.

Leon Guerrero said the pictures could have been taken by patients or scanned from previous ads.

She said that if patients come to the clinic and want to deliver at the birthing center, they can if they meet the criteria. A patient has to be healthy and have a local doctor with privileges at the clinic.

The site Americanbaby.co.kr goes as far as to outline a step-by-step process for expectant moms:

Step 1: Get prenatal care in South Korea;
Step 2: Give birth at Guam Memorial Hospital;
Step 3: Get a passport and Social Security number in Guam within a week after birth; and
Step 4: Go back to Korea in two to three weeks.

The Pacific Daily News called the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Guam for comment. The U.S. Attorney didn't respond as of 7 p.m. yesterday. The immigration agency stated, as a matter of policy, that it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation and forwarded inquiries to its public affairs office in Los Angeles, which didn't respond as of 7 p.m. yesterday.

Each of the Web sites has Guam phone numbers and Guam office addresses, but when the Pacific Daily News called those numbers, the calls weren't answered or the person who answered hung up when informed the call was being made by the PDN.

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20081029 ... GECAROUSEL