If a baby is born mid-flight, what happens visa-wise for them when they land in a foreign country, sans-passport?

Depending on things you can claim the citizenship of the airline, as there is some law (was told during my training but now long since forgotten) that until you exit the aircraft, you are under the protectorate of the country of the plane’s registration. E.g., if the plane was USA registered, and you are born midair between Oz and NZ, then you are under the protection of the USA. Never thought to ask which citizenship though. But the same happens on a boat at sea.

In Canada they automatically become a Canadian Citizen 🙁

It’s named jus soli (Latin), or right of soil, as opposed to jus sanguinis, or right of blood. The citizenship policy is unique, among developed nations, to Canada and (at one point, not sure if it still is) the USA.

It was put in place in the 1947 Citizenship Act when people would come and would leave behind their countries of origin. Our government has been fighting to change the laws for a few years after a ‘scam’ came to light in 2011, in which Chinese women where coached to avoid detection of their pregnancy at the border, lie low until they gave birth to an automatically Canadian child. Then they can take advantage of Canada’s health care and education, and when the child turns 18 he sponsors the parents to migrate to Canada.

It varies according to country. And if the country does not have a rule, there is a United Nations directive that kicks in to prevent the baby from being stateless. In the United Kingdom, your question is explicitly addressed in the British Nationality Act 1981.

For the purposes of this Act a person born outside the United Kingdom aboard a ship or aircraft—

• (a) shall be deemed to have been born in the United Kingdom if—

  • (i) at the time of the birth his father or mother was a British citizen; or

  • (ii) he would, but for this subsection, have been born stateless,

  and (in either case) at the time of the birth the ship or aircraft was registered in the United Kingdom or was an unregistered ship or aircraft of the government of the United Kingdom; but

• (b) subject to paragraph (a), is to be regarded as born outside the United Kingdom, whoever was the owner of the ship or aircraft at that time, and irrespective of whether or where it was then registered.

Basically, the baby has a claim to British citizenship if either parent is British OR the baby would be left stateless.

The question of whether the child’s claim is British Otherwise Than By Descent or British By Descent. The citizenship class of British Otherwise Than By Descent is the preferred class (i.e., Native Brit), but the laws governing this aspect are profoundly complex. If a person is British By Descent, they cannot pass their citizenship to their children unless the child is born physically on this island (or NI). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/262401/chapter20.pdf

For completeness’ sake: if a baby is born inside the UK (or on a British aircraft that lands in the UK) and neither parent is British, the baby gets their citizenship from one of the parents. The baby’s visa status is called tolerated. Tolerated status holds until the baby leaves the UK, and then they must have a proper visa before returning. If the baby remains in the UK for 10 years without leaving, they acquire British Citizenship via the British Nationality Act 1981,

I have direct experience with this; not actually in flight thank goodness, but in transit. My daughter was born prematurely in Shanghai last year during a short layover between Paris and Auckland. My wife and I only had limited 48-hour transit visas for China and our flight was due to depart about 10 hours after she was admitted to hospital at the beginning of labour.

It’s a long story, so I’ll focus on the visa parts and summarise.

• I (since my wife was in hospital at this point) got proper Chinese visas in our passports so that we could remain in China legally (this took several visits to the Chinese Exit-Entry Bureau (EEB)).
• After my daughter was born, we obtained an Emergency Travel Document (ETD) from the New Zealand Consulate in Shanghai.
• We got a Chinese visa for my daughter to put in her ETD, so that she would be permitted to leave China when she was ready (again, more EEB visits).
• The ETD allowed us to enter New Zealand (nearly two months later) and admit her to the NICU in Auckland (as, I discovered later, a permanent resident and not a citizen, but that qualified her for fully funded care).
• We applied for NZ citizenship for her recently so she would now have the same status as if she were born here in NZ.

Since she was born prematurely, she could not fly straight away and had to remain in a heated incubator with continuous medical care. If a full-term baby were born mid-flight or in transit, theoretically they could travel straight away but you would still probably have to modify travel plans just to sort out the paperwork.