Hong Kong Mothers-to-Be Dash to U.S. to Give Birth : Citizenship: They want American passports for their children when the colony reverts to China in 1997.

Seven years before China is scheduled to assume control of Hong Kong, hundreds of mothers-to-be from the colony are journeying to the United States in an ingenious, jet-age dash to have their children born on American soil for what has become a prized possession--a U.S. passport.

The United States automatically bestows citizenship on anyone born here and an increasing number of Hong Kong parents are taking advantage of the law to give their children a new home before the People’s Republic of China takes control of the colony from Britain in 1997.

For the rich, whose Rolls-Royces and BMWs pack the streets of bustling, capitalist Hong Kong, there are a variety of investment schemes costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that could buy their freedom in Canada, New Zealand, Australia or even the tiny Pacific nation of Tonga.

But for the middle class, the routes are limited. “We know enough to be scared, but don’t have the resources to do anything about it,” said one Hong Kong mother who earlier this year gave birth to a son in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In the wake of China’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators last year in Tian An Men Square, a growing number of Hong Kong parents are turning to birth flights as the cheapest, fastest and surest way of finding a future haven for their children.

“In the last three years, it has become really popular,” said Hong Kong resident Janice Cheung, who returned to the colony this month after giving birth to a daughter in July. “Everyone would like to have a baby in the States if they can afford it. When I got pregnant, I knew she would be born in there.”

There are no precise numbers, but estimates from Hong Kong residents, doctors, immigration attorneys and others agree that hundreds--and perhaps thousands--have come to the United States to give birth.

Some women enter U.S. airports wearing heavy coats and sweaters to hide their pregnancies from customs officials. Others choose to land at smaller airports, hoping to avoid detailed questions about their pregnancy.

Rick Kenney, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said there is no law against foreign mothers giving birth to gain U.S. citizenship for their children. He said the women could be considered violating the law for misrepresenting their intentions in coming to this country.

But, he said, “I don’t know of any case of the pursuit of someone who came here to have a baby . . . I mean, it’s not a real problem.”

The parents cannot automatically become U.S. citizens and get no immediate benefit from having their children born here. The parents can be sponsored for residency only after their children turn 21.

But for many Hong Kong women, the thousands of dollars spent on plane fares and medical bills, coupled with the months of separation from their families back home, are worth it.

“We don’t want to affect her future just because we stay in Hong Kong,” said Cheung’s husband, Kenneth. “This is the best security we could have gotten her.”

Eugene Chow, a Hong Kong attorney who writes a column on immigration in the leading Dong Fang Daily News, said interest in the birth flights is so intense that rumors of American immigration crackdowns have touched off panic.

Last year, a popular Hong Kong radio personality incorrectly reported that U.S. rules had changed and babies born here would no longer be granted citizenship.

“Boy, that spread like wildfire,” Chow said, adding that inquiries flooded into the Daily News. “My editor called and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to do something about this!’ ”

Chow quickly wrote two columns explaining that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.--a right that cannot be changed unless the Constitution is amended.

He said his column seemed to quell the rumor for awhile, but it continues to surface every few months. “Things like this happen in Hong Kong now,” Chow said.

The rush to leave Hong Kong before China assumes control has reached a jittery level for many of the colony’s 5.7 million residents. An estimated 1,000 people a week are now emigrating to new homes.

In the past year, Singapore offered to provide passports for 22,000 Hong Kong residents. More than 200,000 have applied.

Canada is offering permanent residency to anyone willing to make a minimum $250,000 business or financial investment. Since its inception in 1986, some 2,200 Hong Kong residents have taken advantage of the program. Australia and New Zealand are also encouraging investment in return for residency.

Even the tiny Pacific republic of the Marshall Islands, perhaps best known as the scene of World War II battles and atomic bomb tests, is offering passports for $250,000 each--with the restriction that the new residents cannot own land or vote. So far, there have been no takers.

Britain, which does not automatically grant Hong Kong citizens the right to live in England, has agreed to give passports to only 50,000 Hong Kong families. The United States, the first choice of many residents, accepts only 5,000 immigrants a year from the colony.

“Hong Kong is like a house on fire,” said one Monterey Park obstetrician, who delivers several Hong Kong babies each year. “Everyone wants to run out.”

Judy Yau, a 28-year-old mother who gave birth to a son in Texas last November, said the pressure to seek a haven has been building since Britain and China began negotiations over the colony’s future in 1982.

Since then, three out of five friends have traveled to the United States or Canada to have babies.

“It’s like the latest fashion trend,” Yau, an advertising executive, said in a telephone interview from Hong Kong. “If you can afford it, you do it.”

Dressed in the baggiest T-shirt she could find, Yau left Hong Kong on a September morning on a plane for Detroit, where she figured U.S. Customs officials would not question her pregnancy.

Her final destination was Houston, where she had arranged to stay with a family she had met only once before in Hong Kong. “It was really panicky for me,” she said. “I thought, ‘Where am I going? What am I supposed to do?’ I was really alone.”

Yau had originally rejected the idea of having her baby born in the United States. She and her husband felt loyal to Hong Kong and did not want to abandon the colony as so many others were preparing to do.

But the crackdown in Tian An Men Square changed their minds. Yau’s husband, also an advertising executive, was involved in the Hong Kong demonstrations against the Chinese government and was threatened several times by an anonymous caller.

“We never thought we would do this,” she said, “but he didn’t want our baby to suffer for what he did.”

She applied for a U.S. tourist visa, which she had no trouble securing because of her job and strong ties to Hong Kong. Like most of the women coming to the United States to have their babies, she had to rely on friends in this country to arrange her medical care.

Yau’s husband went with her to Houston for a week and then flew back to Hong Kong. He rejoined her a week before their baby was born.

For three months, she was cared for by the brother of one of her husband’s friends. “I was just miserable and lonely thinking of the days I would be by myself,” she said. “It was very hard. Whatever you wanted to do, you had to ask a favor.”

But by the end of her stay, she and her hosts had become close friends and she was pleasantly surprised at the medical care in the United States.

“People in the States treat pregnant women like a queen,” she said. “I felt great I had a baby there. In Hong Kong, they just kick you out the door.”

The families typically have to pay cash for hospital care and the cost can be prohibitive for a middle-class family. Yau said it cost her about $7,500 for plane fare, living expenses and delivery.

One enterprising Hong Kong mother whose baby boy was born in Oakland last April, said she started paying for American health insurance as soon as she and her husband decided to have children. “A baby in intensive care for a month will bankrupt you,” said the woman, a marketing executive in Hong Kong.

She ended up paying insurance premiums for five years as she waited to get pregnant. “It took a long time,” she said.

Janice Cheung’s baby daughter was born six weeks premature and the medical bill alone came to $5,000. With living expenses and air fare for her husband and father added, the three-month trip came to more than $10,000.

“Even if we spent more, we were worried more about the baby,” said Kenneth Cheung, a 37-year-old public relations executive for the Hong Kong telephone company. “She got an American passport and she can travel anywhere she wants now.”

Despite the hardship, few parents regret their decision. Yau said even if her son never returns to the United States, she feels secure his passport will protect him. “My baby is safe now,” Yau said. “All those hard times. It was really worth it.”

She keeps her son’s passport tucked away with the rest of the family’s valuables in a safe deposit box. Within the slim, blue booklet attesting to his American citizenship is a tiny photo of a drowsy 2-week-old with perplexed look on his face.

“America stands for freedom and now my baby has freedom,” Yau said.