Effective August 22, 2024, the Department of State (DOS) amended a regulation relating to the effect of certain pardons on criminal-related grounds of visa ineligibility.
The rule amends the existing regulation “to implement the plain meaning of statutory authorities and the President’s constitutional authority regarding the effect of pardons on inadmissibility under INA sections 212(a)(2)(A)(i) and 212(a)(2)(B).” The rule “conveys [DOS’s] interpretation of Congress having expressly not provided an exception to inadmissibility based on a pardon, reflecting a plain reading of the inadmissibility ground in INA section 212(a)(2)(A)(i) that multiple courts have shared.”
DOS found that the rule is “interpretative” and amends visa policy as a “foreign affairs function of the United States” and is therefore not subject to notice-and-comment requirements.