Saturday, October 31, 2009

HIV Travel and Immigration Ban officially GONE

by Amos Lim

President Obama yesterday signed to renew the Ryan White Care Act and officially announced that the order to remove HIV Travel and Immigration Ban from the Rules in HHS will be finalized on Monday. After a 60 days waiting period, the orders will be effective.

It is important to note that as of Sept 15th, USCIS has issued a memo directing its officers to stop denying green card/visa application from people who are HIV+ pending a ruling from the HHS.

All in all, this is VERY good news! The HIV ban was feared based and signed into law 20 years ago. Currently countries that still ban HIV+ people from entering the country are: Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Sudan

You can read about this on:



You can read the transcript of President Obama's speech on Towleroad.com. (or view it on Youtube)

Update on 11/1/2009: Immigration Equality has put out a simple FAQ about this repeal and how it might affect your case. You can read it here.

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