Can an HIV-positive person get Green Card?

As it is well known, it is not that easy to get a United States Green Card. To get an immigrant visa and to immigrate to America, you will have to file several forms, attend interviews, and most of all, you need to wait for a long time.

Likewise, all the foreign nationals who apply for permanent resident status will not be issued Green Cards and permitted to settle in America. Few categories of people are barred from entering America and people who have communicable diseases cannot obtain permanent resident status in America. However, testing positive for HIV, may not prevent a foreign national from becoming a permanent resident of the United States

The U.S. Congress, in 2008, repealed the law that earlier prevented foreign nationals who tested positive for AIDS, from obtaining Green Cards. Later in 2009, the United States Department of Health and Human Services removed AIDS from the list of communicable diseases.

Hence, people who have AIDS can apply for permanent resident status in America but people who have other communicable diseases, cannot apply for lawful status in America. People who have diseases like chancroid, gonorrhea, infectious leprosy, granuloma inguinale, infectious syphilis, and tuberculosis, cannot immigrate to America and these diseases are still on the list of communicable diseases. 

However, people who have these diseases will not be permanently barred from becoming permanent residents, and applications filed by people who have curable diseases like tuberculosis, for permanent resident status in America, will be accepted.

We need to remember that, only the diseases that are on the “list of communicable diseases of public health significance”, will make foreign nationals ineligible for U.S. Green Cards. At the same time, USCIS also grants waivers to the immediate relatives of Green Card holders and U.S. citizens, with such communicable diseases and permits them to immigrate to America.