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Religious Workers
WHAT'S NEW USCIS Proposes Changes to Religious Worker Visa Program On April 25, 2007, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published proposed regulations that would substantially change the existing rules governing the Religious Worker Visa Program. The first public comment period closed on June 25, 2007; however the comment period was reopened on November 1, 2007 and finally closed on November 16, 2007. USCIS received more than 200 comments from a broad range of religious organizations, attorneys, scholars, and members of Congress expressing their objections to many of the proposed changes. USCIS has not indicated publicly when the rule will be finalized. Click here to read HIAS’ comments to the proposed regulation. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The Religious Worker Visa Program (RWVP) was enacted in 1990 to allow U.S. religious denominations to fill religious positions with qualified religious workers from abroad. By enacting the RWVP, Congress recognized both the problems associated with requiring religious workers to conform to the requirements of the employment based immigration categories and religious communities’ need for foreign religious workers to perform pastoral and other religious services in the United States. Immigration law treats religious workers separately from ministers of religion. Ministers of religion include ministers, pastors, priests, rabbis, imams, and others who are authorized by a recognized religious denomination to conduct religious worship and perform other duties usually performed by members of the clergy. 8 C.F.R. §204.5(m)(2). The 1990 Act included “non-minister” provisions to allow religious denominations or organizations to sponsor religious workers to perform services in a “religious vocation or occupation.” The RWVP provides for up to 5,000 fourth-preference “special immigrant” visas per year that permit minister and non-minister religious workers to apply for permanent resident status. The non-minister provisions of the program were enacted with a sunset date, but the law has been extended four times and is currently scheduled to expire on September 30, 2008. The RWVP also provides religious denominations and organizations with the ability to sponsor temporary religious workers under the R-1 visa category. Unlike the special immigrant provision, the nonimmigrant provision is permanent and has no numerical limitation. In order to participate in the non-minister religious worker visa program, the worker must have been a member of the religious denomination for at least two years immediately preceding the application. The special immigrant visa contains the additional requirement that the worker must have been employed with the denomination or organization continuously for two years before the application is filed. Religious workers are not subject to labor certification requirements.
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