The Obama administration has officially taken the first step in lifting the 15-year-old law banning HIV-positive people from entering the United States, according to The Advocate.

The Office of Management & Budget posted a notice on its web site announcing that the Department of Health & Human Services finished last Friday the research required to start the process of lifting the ban.

Steve Ralls, an Immigration Equality spokesperson, said: "we are hoping that the ban will be lifted ... by the end of the year."

President of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese, cited in a statement that the move marked  "one important step closer to finally ending this discriminatory ban once and for all."

"This regulation is unnecessary, ineffective and lacks any public health justification," he proceeded to say. "We are confident that this sad chapter in our nation's treatment of people with HIV and AIDS will soon be closed."

Last year, former President George W. Bush signed into law, as part of the reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a provision removing the ban from federal statute. While Congress passed the policy change last summer, the Bush administration was unable to implement the shift before leaving office.

Until early August, the regulatory ban preventing HIV-positive foreign nationals from entering the United States was in place, according to The Associated Press. But since the ban's reversal, the United States has been praised and applauded for its efforts, inspiring other nations with similar bans, such as Libya, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, to possibly - and hopefully - follow the movement.