Green-Card Changes Threaten Pastors' Ability To Remain in US
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers is seeking to address changes to the green-card process that placed thousands of foreign-born pastors, priests, nuns and other religious workers at risk of losing their ability to serve in faith communities across the United States.
Why It Matters
Religious workers across the country could risk losing their ability to stay in the U.S. due to a change made by the Biden administration in 2023 that added minors who have suffered abuse to the EB-4 visa queue with religious workers. Many religious workers come to the U.S. on R-1 visas, which are valid up to five years, and can apply for an EB-4 visa, which gives them lawful permanent resident status.
After five years, R-1 visa holders are required to return to their home country if they do not obtain a green card. A backlog created by that 2023 means that the once-shorter processing time has gone up for religious workers, according to the Associated Press.
This has upended religious communities across the country that rely on foreign workers, prompting a response from legislators who earlier this year introduced the Religious Workforce Protection Act.
A stock image shows a priest reading a Bible near an altar in church.
A stock image shows a priest reading a Bible near an altar in church.
SeventyFour/iStock via Getty Images
What To Know
The Religious Workforce Protection Act, introduced by Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, would allow these religious workers to stay in the United States past five years until a decision is made on their green-card application, Kaine's office wrote in a statement earlier this year.
Kaine introduced the bill in April with support from Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Jim Risch of Idaho. A similar bill has been introduced in the House.
Kaine introduced the bill after hearing about churches losing priests through his parish in Richmond, he wrote in a statement in April.
"But as it turns out, this problem is not unique to Virginia—it's impacting religious congregations of many faiths, all across the country," he said.
In March 2023, the Biden administration revised how green-card applications are processed for religious workers by merging their category (EB-4) with vulnerable minors from Central America—previously processed in a separate queue, AP reported. Many of those cases had been misfiled for seven years prior to the change, so there has been a backlog ever since.
The EB-4 visa is intended for specific immigrant groups, including religious workers, certain broadcasters and now those vulnerable minors, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
There are only about 10,000 EB-4 visas granted annually, though not all go to the religious workers subcategory, and the State Department announced in February that the limit for Fiscal Year 2025 had been reached.
What People Are Saying
Senator Tim Kaine told AP: "Even as immigration issues are controversial and sometimes they run afoul of partisan politics, we think this fix is narrow enough, and the stakeholder group we have is significant enough, that we're hoping we can get this done."
Senator Susan Collins, in an April statement: "When Maine parishes where I attend mass started losing their priests, I saw this issue creating a real crisis in our state. Recently, three Catholic parishes in rural Maine—Saint Agatha, Bucksport and Greenville—were left without priests for months because their R-1 visas expired while their EB-4 applications were still pending. Our bill would help religious workers of all faith traditions continue to live and serve here in the United States while their applications for permanent residency are being fully processed."
The Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. wrote earlier in July: "The RWPA is a short but powerfully impactful piece of legislation with three key parts. First, it would allow religious workers with an approved I-360 to continue to file extensions of their R-1 status until they can file their I-485 applications. This would have kept many religious workers in their communities over the past two years, without forcing them to leave and apply for a new period of R-1 time after a year abroad."
What Happens Next
The Senate and House bills currently await action in committees, and faith groups are closely monitoring their prospects. Until legislative or administrative remedies are enacted, foreign-born clergy and religious workers will likely continue to face significant challenges in maintaining their roles within U.S. communities.
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