In short: of the 97 countries we track, surrogacy with payment is legal in 8, and another 16 allow altruistic arrangements only. In 34 there is no law at all, in 17 it is prohibited, and in 18 the law sets a penalty. When you are moving, the question is not whether it is legal but whether it is open to you and who will be registered as the parent: each country card has a separate line for both. This is the position on the date of our check in the header: in several countries the law is moving right now, and their cards say so separately.
No such country in this list. Check the spelling.
The law allows the arrangement and payment beyond expenses. That does not mean the route is open to everyone: see the line on access for foreigners, there are conditions almost everywhere. Within each group, countries are in alphabetical order.
A fee is not allowed, reimbursement of expenses usually is. This normally comes with requirements for the surrogate herself and a mandatory court step, without which the intended parents are not the ones registered.
There is no outright ban either, but there are no rules: the outcome depends on the particular court, clinic and official. For a move this is the least predictable option, because nobody can tell you in advance how it ends.
The agreement has no force and clinics do not perform the procedure. The law sets no separate penalty for taking part, but that does not settle the question of a child born in another country: see the Note line.
The law sets a fine or imprisonment. Who exactly is punished differs: the doctor, the intermediary, the intended parents. Check separately whether going abroad for surrogacy is punished too.
We looked for a law, government websites and court rulings and found nothing reliable. We did not place these countries in a group by analogy with their neighbours: that would be a guess, not a fact. Each card says where to check for yourself.
As of our check on 22 October 2026, paid surrogacy is legal in 8 of the 97 countries we track, among them United States, Georgia, Israel, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan. Another 16 countries allow altruistic arrangements only. The full list with the conditions for each country is above on this page.
More often no than yes, and this is what gets lost in talk about countries where surrogacy is legal. Some states require citizenship or residence outright, others admit only married couples, others only people with a medical indication. That is why every country card carries a separate line on access: read that line first, not the group heading.
This is the second question that leaves people stranded abroad with a child and no documents. In some countries the intended parents are recorded at birth. In others the woman who gave birth is the legal mother, and parenthood passes only by court order or adoption, sometimes months later. A third model requires a court to approve the agreement before conception, without which the agreement has no force. Each card says which one applies.
Legally these are different regimes, not a difference in amount. Where only altruistic surrogacy is allowed, a fee beyond expenses voids the agreement, and intermediaries and advertising are often punishable separately. Where payment is allowed, the law usually sets out the surrogate's rights and the registration of parents in more detail.
It depends on the country whose citizen you are, and that is worth finding out before the trip rather than after. In some places a child born abroad is recognised through the genetic parent's paternity, with the second parent adopting later. In others the law punishes going abroad for surrogacy: Italy made it a separate offence in October 2024. The Note line on each card flags such cases.
In 18 countries on our list the law sets a penalty: Austria, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey. Who is punished differs: most often the doctor and the intermediary, less often the intended parents, while the surrogate herself is frequently exempt. We name the exact provision in the Note line for each of those countries.
This is one of the most volatile areas of family law: countries open the practice, close it to foreigners, or introduce penalties. Everything here is the position on the date of our check in the page header, not a promise about the future. In several countries the law is moving right now, and their cards say so separately. Before any decision, check recent news and the authority's website, and better still ask a lawyer in both countries at once: your own and the one you are heading to. We recheck this list every three months, and sooner if we see a law passed or a court ruling.
We checked four things across all 97 countries in our ranking: whether surrogacy is allowed, whether payment beyond expenses is allowed, whether foreigners can use it, and who the law treats as the child's parent. Sources: texts of laws and codes, health ministry and civil registry websites, court rulings, and reviews by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. We do not treat clinic and agency websites as sources: they sell the service. We describe the law and give no legal or medical advice; allowed in the table does not mean the route is open to you personally. The date of our check is in the page header. We place a country in the prohibited and punishable group when the law names a fine or a prison term for a person: the doctor, the intermediary or the intended parents. Where the ban rests only on the agreement being void or on clinic licensing rules, the country sits in the prohibited group.
The list is built from the index cards of the 97 countries in our ranking and the country pages, where every fact has a source. Checked 22/10/2026.
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