Foreign-born religious workers, who have been hoping for changes to the temporary visa process, recently celebrated a small win. In January, the US Department of Homeland Security said, foreign religious workers whose temporary visas have expired no longer have to live outside the United States for one year before they can return.
But the fight to change the immigration process for religious workers, including priests, nuns, and rabbis, is not over yet.
Religious workers usually come to the US on an R-1 visa, which can allow people to stay in the United States for a total of five years. Religious workers are eligible also for EB-4 visas, a category that is essentially a catch-all for a variety of subgroups and is capped at around 10,000 visas per year.
