Positive Life NSW

On Wednesday July 30, US President George Bush signed into law a multibillion dollar AIDS relief bill that also ends the twenty year ban on entry of foreign visitors and immigrants with HIV.

The $48 billion AIDS relief bill, also known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), was passed by a vote of 303 to 115 in the US House of Representatives on July 24th. It includes an amendment inserted by the US Senate on July 16th to remove a statutory ban on the entry of foreign visitors and immigrants with HIV.

The US is one of only 11 other countries including: Saudi Arabia, Libya, Armenia, Sudan, Russia, Brunei, Columbia, Fiji, Iraq, Moldavia and South Korea that ban travel and immigration to people with HIV.

The HIV travel ban was adopted by the US in 1993 during a time of widespread fear and ignorance about HIV. Activists from around the globe have advocated for the ban to be lifted. A repeal of the ban does not yet clear the way for travel to the US by people with HIV.

The Department of Health and Human Services placed HIV on its list of diseases in 1987 including leprosy and tuberculosis, barring entry to the US. That prohibition is separate from the travel ban imposed by the US Congress that has just been lifted. This means that federal health officials are no longer bound by law to keep HIV on the list.

It is currently unclear whether Health and Human Services will address the ban in the near future. Reversing the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation, experts warn, may take months and may not happen before the new President and the next administration is in the White House.

US advocacy groups are pressing the current administration to immediately start the process to lift the travel ban on people with HIV. After the HHS regulation has been lifted, people with HIV visiting the US will no longer be required to make false statements about their HIV status on entry documentation, adopt complicated concealment measures to hide their ant-HIV medications from customs and immigration officials, and suffer associated anxiety caused by potential detection, subsequent deportation and a life-time ban from reentry.

Currently an HIV waiver (Waiver I-601) can sometimes be obtained for travel to the US for business, conference, family reunion, or pre-approved medical grounds. You need to show that you don’t have HIV symptoms, don’t pose a threat to public health and can pay for medical care, if necessary. The application process is bureaucratic and time consuming and can be declined by immigration. Your HIV status will also be recorded on the US immigration database, the HIV waiver will appear in your passport (unless you ask for it to be stamped on a detachable piece of paper) and a new waiver will then be required for each subsequent visit. Few people with HIV have applied for waivers.

For more information on HIV and travel:

• The European AIDS treatment Group website includes details of HIV specific residency and immigration rules around the world: www.eatg.org/hivtravel
• AIDSMap website from the UK also provides basic detail on entry restrictions around the world: www.aidsmap.com
• The website of the Australian Government’s travel advisory and consular assistance contains information on living and working overseas: www.smartraveller.gov.au/tips/working
• ‘Up, Up and Away’ booklet, produced in 2005, includes further detail about travelling with HIV medications and other useful information for the traveler with HIV.
• 'At home,….Away’, the pocket sized resource produced in 2004, covers a wide range of travel tips from meeting men, finding romance and negotiating sex, through travelling with medications.

Sources: Poz.com; Houston Chronicle; Associated Press; CBS News, Los Angles Times.