Religious Workforce Protection Act Offers Visa Extensions, Job Flexibility for Workers Facing Green Card Delays

This bill, the Religious Workforce Protection Act, tweaks U.S. immigration law specifically for religious workers holding R-1 visas. If you're a minister, nun, religious instructor, or fill another qualifying role and are waiting on a green card, this could directly impact you. The main goals are to let these workers extend their temporary stay while their permanent residency application is stuck in line, offer some job flexibility during long waits, and remove a specific one-year waiting period abroad for certain returning workers.

Staying Put During the Wait

Right now, religious workers on R-1 visas generally hit a five-year limit. If their green card application (specifically, having an approved I-360 petition for the EB-4 special immigrant category) is approved but they're caught in numerical backlogs for visa availability, they might have to leave the U.S. This bill changes that. Section 2 amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA Section 214(a)(2)) to allow these workers to extend their R-1 status beyond five years if their immigrant petition is approved and they're just waiting for a visa number to become available. Think of it as hitting pause on the five-year clock, providing stability for both the worker and the religious organization relying on them.

A Bit More Job Freedom

Long waits for green cards can mean life changes. Section 3 offers a degree of job flexibility, similar to what some other employment-based green card applicants already have. It updates INA Section 204(j) references for religious workers. While the exact mechanics depend on how existing rules are applied, this generally means if a religious worker's adjustment of status application (I-485) has been pending for a significant time (typically 180 days under the referenced framework), they might be able to change jobs to a similar religious occupation without derailing their green card process. This could help if, for example, their original sponsoring congregation undergoes changes during the multi-year wait.

Skipping the Mandatory Year Away

Under current regulations, R-1 workers who max out their five-year stay generally must spend at least one year outside the U.S. before becoming eligible for a new R-1 visa period. Section 4 creates an exception. If a religious worker left the U.S. solely because they hit that five-year R-1 limit, this bill waives the one-year foreign residence requirement (typically found in 8 CFR 214.2(r)(6)) for getting a subsequent R-1 visa. This could streamline the return for needed workers who were only forced out by the time cap.