U.S. bishops back bipartisan effort to keep foreign religious workers in United States

Multiple U.S. bishops are hailing a proposed bipartisan effort to keep religious workers — including Catholic priests — in the United States by extending their special visas instead of sending them to their home countries for extended lengths of time. 

Catholic advocates have been warning for months of a looming crisis in which many U.S.-based priests will be forced to leave their ministries and return to their home countries, after which they would be subject to lengthy wait times before coming back. 

A 2023 change to U.S. visa rules created a backlog of visa applicants that has threatened to prevent priests from obtaining a green card before their initial religious worker visa expires. 

The backlog was created when the State Department and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) increased the number of immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who are applying for EB-4 visas, the special visa category used by religious workers.

Church officials have warned that the backlog could lead to significant priest shortages in the country, with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stating that, due to the rule change, immigrants on temporary five-year R-1 visas could be forced to return home and wait many more years for a permanent EB-4 visa.

‘Critically needed’ visa reform

On Tuesday a group of U.S. senators including Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins introduced the Religious Workforce Protection Act, which would allow R-1 immigrants to “stay in the U.S. while waiting for permanent residency,” according to a press release from Kaine’s office. 

The proposed bill, which is just three pages long, would offer a “targeted fix” to the looming R-1 crisis “by granting the DHS secretary the authority to extend temporary R-1 nonimmigrant status for religious workers past five years until they receive a decision on their permanent residence application.”

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