It’s 2 AM. What started as casual Wikipedia browsing about US territories has spiraled into something else entirely. You’re now deep into Immigration and Nationality Act subsections, and you’ve just realized there’s a way to give your future child the keys to America without locking them to it forever. Your spouse is asleep. You’re taking notes.

She told you about the baby three days ago. You haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

This is what fathers do. Not the browsing at 2 AM specifically (though yes, that too), but the discovering and presenting of options that didn’t seem to exist before. It’s your job to scout the territory, identify the opportunities, work out the logistics, and then present it to your wife in a way that makes the decision obvious.

American Samoa isn’t just a random Pacific island. It’s a solution to a problem most people don’t even know they have.

What You’ve Discovered

American Samoa sits in the South Pacific, roughly twice as far from California as Hawaii. It’s the only inhabited US territory where babies are born as US nationals but not US citizens—a distinction so arcane that most people have never heard of it.

Your child born there gets a US passport. They can live and work anywhere in America. They receive full consular protection abroad. They can attend American universities as domestic students, paying in-state tuition rates.

But unlike US citizens, they face no citizenship-based taxation when living outside the United States. No IRS filing requirements while working in London, Singapore, or Sydney. No tax forms following them around the globe for life.

Compare this to giving birth in the United States itself: your child would get US citizenship, yes, but they’d be locked into lifetime tax obligations regardless of where they live. Even if they never set foot in America again after childhood, they’d be filing US tax returns forever—or face penalties for renouncing.

American Samoa offers the access without the anchor.

Who This Works For

If you’re not a US citizen—Canadian, British, Mexican, from anywhere outside the United States—your child born in American Samoa becomes a US national without citizenship. They inherit your citizenship too, becoming dual nationals with extraordinary flexibility.

There is one limitation: US citizens who have lived continuously in America or its territories for more than one year cannot use this strategy. The law automatically grants US citizenship to children born in American Samoa if one parent is a US citizen who met that residency requirement.

This affects most Americans, but benefits the roughly nine million “accidental Americans” who’ve never lived in the US for extended periods—people who were born in the US but left as infants, or were born abroad to an American parent but never returned.

But for everyone else—the vast majority of the world’s population—this opportunity is simply there.

Getting There

Hawaiian Airlines runs flights from Honolulu twice weekly. If you’re coming from Australia or New Zealand, there are flights to neighboring independent Samoa, then a short connection to American Samoa. The travel costs are substantial but not prohibitive for most middle-class families planning a significant life event.

Staying There

The Tradewinds Hotel has rooms available. There are also short-term rentals on the island. The territory has roughly 45,000 residents who are deeply protective of their culture and explicitly don’t want mass tourism or development. It’s underdeveloped by American standards—internet is unreliable, fresh produce is scarce.

A lawyer who spent four years there described it as having a “developing feel.”

Medical Care

The territory has one hospital—Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center. YouTube videos exist if you want to preview the facility. It’s not a state-of-the-art medical center, but it functions. Babies are born there regularly.

Doulas also offer homebirth services on the island for those who prefer that option.

Entry Requirements

Citizens of Visa Waiver Program countries (most of Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK) can visit for 30 days with advance online authorization filed at least 48 hours before travel.

There’s a law against heavily pregnant foreign women entering, though in practice it’s aimed at preventing nationals from poorer neighboring countries from birth tourism. A pregnant Canadian or British woman would likely face no issues, though nothing is guaranteed.

Extensions may be possible with a local sponsor, though requirements vary. Local employment or enrollment at the community college (which offers programs for minimal cost) can also extend a stay.

Hawaiian Airlines allows ninth-month travel with doctor’s approval. Thirty days is tight but possible with meticulous planning.

The Status Itself

For roughly 50,000 to 100,000 American Samoans worldwide, this status is simply their birthright. They can live in the United States unrestrictedly and use the US passport for international travel.

The limitations: they cannot vote in US federal, state, and most local elections. They are ineligible to serve in federal elected office in the United States.

If an American Samoan later decides to pursue a career requiring US citizenship, they can naturalize through the standard process—civics and English tests, interview, residency requirements. Time spent in American Samoa counts toward the residency requirement.

But for most people, the exemption from worldwide taxation more than compensates for these limitations.

What This Actually Means

Your child could grow up in Toronto or London or Mexico City, then have the choice to attend university in California, work in New York, or build a career in America—without committing them to a lifetime of IRS obligations.

They could work in America for a decade, then return home and live completely free from US tax jurisdiction. Or they could stay in America forever if they choose. The flexibility is extraordinary.

If they never want to live in America, they don’t have to. But if they do, the door is open. No visa applications. No green card lottery. No sponsorship needed. Just the right to be there.

Your Job

You’ve been thinking about this for three days straight. You’ve opened dozens of tabs. You’ve read the actual text of the Immigration and Nationality Act. You’ve watched videos of the hospital. You’ve mapped out flight routes. You’ve researched entry requirements and calculated timelines.

This is what you do. You find the opportunities that seem impossible. You work out whether they’re actually possible. You remove the obstacles one by one until what seemed insane becomes merely unconventional.

You’re not doing this to optimize your own taxes. You’re doing this to give your child something that money can’t buy in any other way: access to the world’s largest economy without the permanent entanglement that usually comes with it.

Yes, it requires getting to one of the most remote inhabited places under US jurisdiction. Yes, the infrastructure is limited. Yes, you’ll be explaining this decision to confused relatives for years.

But you’ve done the research. You’ve worked out the logistics. You’ve anticipated the objections. You’ve made it possible.

Now it’s a choice, not a fantasy. That’s your job as a father.

And somewhere right now, at 2 AM, another father just found out about the baby and is starting to take notes.