Trump admin drops one-year religious visa wait period
Catholic leaders praised the new rule but argued that more action is needed.
The Trump administration announced a new rule Wednesday to remove a one-year out-of-country waiting period for priests and religious seeking a new temporary R-1 visa after the expiration of their previous visa.
Catholic leaders praised the Department of Homeland Security’s new interim final rule, but argued that action is needed from Congress to prevent disruptions in ministry for priests and religious sisters in the process of applying for a green card.
R-1 visas allow foreign religious workers to spend up to five years in the United States.
For years, priests and religious could enter the U.S. with temporary R-1 visas, begin ministry, and then apply for permanent resident status, all with the reasonable expectation that they would obtain a green card usually within 18 months — before the five-year R-1 visa expired.
But in April 2023, changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act added special categories of juvenile migrants to the same immigration category as those with religious worker visas.
The result was that roughly 100,000 extra migrants were added to a category for which only 10,000 green cards could be issued annually.
That led to a huge backlog in permanent residency applications by clergy and religious serving in American dioceses who entered the country on R-1 religious worker visas.
While it once took months to convert an R-1 visa into a green card, priests and religious now find themselves waiting years or decades. And if a priest’s five-year R-1 visa expires while he is waiting, he was required — before this week’s rule change — to leave the country for a year before returning with a new one.
Dioceses across the country have spoken out about the detrimental effects of requiring foreign priests and religious to leave for a year before continuing their ministry in the United States. This policy, they said, creates gaps in ministry and uncertainty in planning.
Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, told The Pillar in 2024 that nearly 25% of priests in his archdiocese come from other countries.
In August 2024, five foreign-born priests and the Diocese of Paterson, N.J., filed suit against the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, arguing that the priests’ backlog, and likely need to depart from the United States, would “cause severe and substantial disruption to the lives and religious freedoms” of both the priests and the Catholics of the Paterson diocese.
The Trump administration’s new policy removes the requirement that religious workers wait one year before seeking to enter the U.S. on a new R-1 visa after their previous one has expired.
“While R-1 religious workers are still required to depart the U.S., the rule establishes that there is no longer a minimum period of time they must reside and be physically present outside the U.S. before they seek readmission in R-1 status,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
“We are tremendously grateful for the Administration’s work to address certain challenges facing foreign-born religious workers, their employers, and the American communities they serve,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley, USCCB president, and Migration Committee chairman Bishop Brendan Cahill.
“The value of the Religious Worker Visa Program and our appreciation for the efforts undertaken to support it cannot be overstated,” the bishops said in a statement, calling the new rule “a truly significant step that will help facilitate essential religious services for Catholics and other people of faith throughout the United States by minimizing disruptions to cherished ministries.”
Miguel A. Naranjo, director of religious immigration services for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), told The Pillar that the new regulation will help religious workers continue their ministry in the U.S. without year-long gaps.
But, he noted, if they hail from countries in which the U.S. has instituted travel bans, religious workers may find themselves unable to obtain a new R-1 visa, even under the new rules.
And on Jan. 14, the Trump administration also announced that it was indefinitely suspending the processing of immigrant visas from 75 countries. While it is unclear how long the visa processing pause will last, foreign priests and religious from those countries may not be able to get new R-1 visas after their initial ones expire.
Both CLINIC and the USCCB have advocated for the passage of the Religious Workforce Protection Act, a bill that would allow foreign religious workers who have applied for permanent residency to remain in the country while renewing their R-1 status, if a green card application is pending.
In their Jan. 14 statement, Archbishop Coakley and Bishop Cahill reiterated their call for that legislation as a long-term solution.
“In order to provide the full extent of the relief needed and truly promote the free exercise of religion in our country, we continue to urge Congress to enact the bipartisan Religious Workforce Protection Act,” they said.
The Trump administration’s new rule does not address the possible shutdown of the permanent residency program used by many religious workers in the United States.
Unlike the R-1 visa, which only grants a stay of up to five years in the U.S., the EB-4 program offers permanent residence — and a path to citizenship — for religious workers.
There are two kinds of EB-4 visas available under the current system: ministerial, which includes Catholic clergy members, and non-ministerial, which includes religious sisters, brothers and lay people working in a variety of religious ministries.
The non-ministerial portion of the EB-4 program is set to sunset on Jan. 30, unless Congress acts to extend it. Such extensions are routinely included in Congress’ appropriations bills to keep the government funded.
If Congress were to fail to extend the program, it would mean that many non-ordained Catholic religious workers, including religious sisters, would be unable to obtain permanent residency in the United States. Other paths to permanent residency and citizenship may not be available to them, making their future in the United States uncertain.
The USCCB has repeatedly called on Congress to make the program permanent rather than connecting it to annual appropriations bills.
In a letter to Congress last year, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, then-chairman of the bishops’ migration committee, said the program has, since its creation in 1990, allowed religious workers to carry out important ministries in the United States.
“Congress should permanently reauthorize this program to avoid the uncertainty and disruption that its looming expiration unnecessarily creates for religious organizations, their workers, the communities they serve, and the federal agencies administering the program,” he said.