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Countries where surrogacy is legal

Countries where surrogacy laws exist

Countries and the legality of surrogacy

GESTLIFE carries out surrogacy programs in all countries where surrogacy is legal, and the necessary guarantees are offered.

In this way we are not obliged to offer you the only destination we have, as if it were a marvel, or to show off other countries, for the simple reason that we do not have them among our programs. At GESTLIFE we advise you on the program that best suits your needs, not because we have no other destination to offer you.

At the moment surrogacy processes can be carried out in the following countries:
USA, UKRAINE, CANADA, ALBANIA, ALBANIA, GEORGIA, GREECE, KAZAKHSTAN ,ARMENIA, COLOMBIA , MEXICO. KYRGYZSTAN.

Countries and surrogacy processes

Since its inception, Gestlife has had the philosophy of offering all possible destinations to prospective parents for their surrogacy processes.

We research them, we visit them, we open our own offices (15 in 11 countries) with our own staff (more than 180 employees, we are not intermediaries), and we ensure the quality of the services of the providers involved.

Thus, we are not obliged to offer only one destination for surrogacy processes. Many "agencies" have only one destination, which they have to defend tooth and nail, discouraging all other destinations, because otherwise they do not get "clients".

We can really recommend the most suitable destination for surrogacy, adjusting to the needs of each family.

Marriage deciding on where to do surrogacy

Of course we want you to go through the surrogacy process with us. That is what we do. But once you decide to work with us, our priorities are 3:

Avoid making legal mistakes that could jeopardize your surrogacy process, breaking the laws of a country and getting into serious legal trouble.

Guarantee a successful medical outcome: a healthy baby.

Reduce your expenses as much as possible. We prefer that you keep your money for your child, and not for intermediaries who only take a commission for introducing you to the clinic.

We are not conditioned to offer you only one destination, yes or yes, because we don't have a better one to offer you, unlike many of the surrogacy agencies, which only have one destination, even if it is not the right one for you.
If an agency has only one destination to offer you, what do you think they will tell you about that destination? Nothing but wonders. And what do you think they will tell you when you ask them about the destinations offered by other agencies? You can imagine.
Instead of recommending what suits you best, most agencies recommend the only thing they have to offer. And that is not what you need.

It is important that the family wishing to undertake surrogacy understands that there are three types of countries where surrogacy can take place (of course, there is a fourth group, which are countries where surrogacy is forbidden, which we will not talk about in order not to waste your time, as they do not contribute anything).

Countries that have specific surrogacy legislation

These countries have specific legislation for surrogacy, which develops the right of the commissioning parent(s) (you) to carry out a surrogacy procedure.
These laws transfer the rights over the child from the surrogate parents to the commissioning parents. These countries have laws drafted by their parliaments, or subsequently modified by rulings of high courts, such as the Constitutional Court, allowing certain people to carry out surrogacy processes.

These are the countries where a surrogacy process can be carried out with all the guarantees. Gestlife has offices in all of them, with the exception of Canada.

COUNTRY	Heterosexual married couples	Unmarried heterosexual couples	Single men	Single women	Same-sex couples male	same-sex female couples	Trans people
USA	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
UKRAINE	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO (if not married)
GEORGIA	YES	YES (if more than one year of demonstrable cohabitation)	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
GREECE	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO	YES (as a single woman)
ALBANIA	YES	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO
KAZAKHSTAN	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
ARMENIA	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO

*CANADA is a country with an altruistic law, which prevents the commercial rewarding of the surrogate mother. advertising for surrogacy or offering to be a surrogate mother is punishable. also, the intermediation of agencies is forbidden. the period to find a surrogate mother can be up to 5 years.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: this table is for guidance only. please consult one of our family counsellors about the special conditions in each country, as the requirements for surrogacy vary from one country to another.

Countries that do not have a specific surrogacy law, but where surrogacy procedures are usually carried out

Following the premise that what is not forbidden is allowed, new destinations are appearing in countries where there is no specific legislation on surrogacy.

These countries lack an explicit law on surrogacy, and the processes that take place in these countries are carried out with the intervention of a local court, which recognizes the paternity of the commissioning father.

This is a legal vacuum, which is not without risk since, in the absence of a law, there is a risk that sooner or later one will be enacted, although it is not known in what sense (whether to regulate it positively or to prohibit it):

Gestlife provides the best support throughout pregnancy

These countries are:

PAIS	Casadas	No Casadas	Varones Solteros	Mujeres Solteras	Parejas Homosexuales Masculinas	Parejas Heterosexuales Femeninas	Personas Trans
COLOMBIA	SI	SI	SI	NO	SI	NO	NO
MÉXICO	SI	SI	SI	NO	SI	NO	NO
ARGENTINA	SI	SI	SI	NO	SI	NO	NO

GESTLIFE has its own office in Mexico and Colombia.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: this table is merely indicative. Please consult one of our family advisors for the special conditions of each country, as the requirements for surrogacy vary from one country to another.

Countries that have specific legislation on altruistic surrogacy

Altruistic surrogacy: in this type of legislation there is a maximum amount of compensation that the surrogate can receive, as the law aims to ensure that the surrogate can receive a maximum amount of money.
The surrogate is not enriched. In some countries, the amount ranges from zero, as was the case in Portugal's law, to 20,000 Canadian dollars in Canada (not as financial compensation, but as payment for medical expenses, clothing, medication etc.). Paying a higher amount to the gestational carrier is an offence punishable by imprisonment.

Countries that have banned surrogacy in their countries for foreigners

Some countries, over the last decade, have carried out surrogacy processes for foreigners. But at one point in their history, they decided to ban surrogacy for foreign nationals, restricting the right to participate in a surrogacy program to nationals of their country. These countries are:

🔹 PORTUGAL*
🔹 RUSSIA
🔹 UNITED KINGDOM
🔹 REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
🔹 GIBRALTAR
🔹 The Mexican states of Tabasco, Sinaloa, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, and Coahuila.
🔹 NEPAL
🔹 LAOS
🔹 CAMBODIA
🔹VIETNAM
🔹 THAILAND
🔹 INDIA

*In the case of Portugal, it is also required that the surrogate has no uterus, that the surrogate does not charge money, be a heterosexual couple, go through a deontological committee and the surrogate has a period of time to change her mind and keep the baby after birth, so that after 4 years, there has only been one case.

countries where a surrogacy process should not be done

The figure of "surrogacy agency" is not regulated in Europe, so there are no requirements to open a surrogacy agency (unlike a surrogacy office).
The law is a legal profession that must have a law degree, civil liability insurance, a code of ethics, etc.).
This periodically leads to the appearance of "agencies" with newly invented destinations, especially in the case of single parents or gay couples (although some heterosexual couples also fall into this type of trap), in countries where there is no law on surrogacy, but where there is no jurisprudence that allows it either. They are easily detected by the following important details:
- IVF is performed in a country, but the birth cannot take place in that country.
- Obviously the child does not have the passport of that country.

Currently, the destination we have detected that is making the most noise in the sector is CYPRUS. It is mainly focused on single men or homosexual couples. In vitro fertilization is done in the Turkish Republic of Cyprus (a state not recognized by Europe), and then you are offered to give birth in another country. Some agencies have the courage to offer you to give birth in Portugal or even Spain.