NEW YORK – Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso calls the process temporary religious worker visa (R-1 visa) recipients endure to maintain their legal status a “race against time” with backlogs Federal processing requirements making it difficult to meet different authorizations and expiration dates.

It’s not a new problem. However, according to Seitz, other bishops and legal immigration experts, it has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and has barely abated after two years, leaving both religious workers and the organizations they represent in precarious situations.

The United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) has taken steps to improve the process this year, but these efforts are not considered sufficient.

“I have heard from many of my brother bishops that they are all having difficulty with R-1,” said Seitz, the new migration president of the American Bishops’ Conference. Node. “Knowing that there are people serving the church right now just to help people every day – visiting the sick, preaching, offering the sacraments – we are making it extremely difficult for them.”

Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, the current USCCB Migration Chair, said Node that the USCCB expressed its concerns to the USCIS to no avail.

“For more than a year, the USCCB has made it a priority to resolve persistent issues with religious worker visa processing delays, and the program has been slower than ever, which has had a significant impact. on the ministry of the church throughout the country,” Dorsonville mentioned.

Problems from start to finish

The treatment problems begin even before a religious worker enters American soil.

When a religious worker wants to come to the United States, the first step is for the employer to submit a petition to USCIS six months prior to that employee’s start date. In a pre-COVID-19 world, this petition took up to six months to process. In a COVID-19 world, that time has increased. The processing time to March 17 at the USCIS California Service Center is 7.5 to 10 months, according to the USCIS website.

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“It doesn’t just affect the religious worker. It also affects the organization,” said Elnora Bassey, a political lawyer with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC). Nodenoting that the delay could cause religious workers to miss their start date and force their employers to determine how or whether to fill this position in the meantime.

However, this 7.5 to 10 month delay is only the first of the potential processing problems.

Once this request has been processed, the religious worker must then apply for the R-1 visa through the Department of State, which involves an interview at the US Consulate in the worker’s home country. Once this process is approved, the last step for the worker is to go through US Customs and Border Protection at a US port of entry.

A religious worker’s R-1 visa can last up to five years divided into two two-and-a-half-year stays.

The longest backlog of the whole process occurs towards the end of these first two and a half years. At that time, the employer can file the same petition they did to bring the religious worker to the United States to extend the R-1 visa for another two and a half years. There is a 180 day grace period in case the renewal is not processed by the end of the first stint.

If after this 180-day grace period the extension is still not processed, the religious worker must stop working or they run the risk of violating their status.

Around the same time, after two years of working in the United States on an R-1 visa, a religious worker can fill out what is called an I-360 form, which is the first step to becoming a permanent resident. he intends to stay in the United States beyond the five years allowed by the R-1 visa.

The government’s longest delay is in processing Form I-360. The weather fluctuates. On March 17, the USCIS website had the California service center processing time of 17.5 to 23 months. Last week it was 23 to 29.5 months.

Bassey said before the COVID-19 pandemic, it took about six months.

“The reason processing times are a major issue, especially for I-360 stages, is because if it takes more than two years to process an I-360 and a religious worker doesn’t has more than two and a half years left in R-1 status, if that I-360 is not approved before that status expires, the religious worker will have to return home,” Bassey said.

“They have no choice and that’s what a lot of religious organizations based in the United States are facing right now is that they have to send religious workers home,” he said. she continued.

USCIS refused Node request for comment on processing times.

Once a religious worker’s Form I-360 is processed, they can apply for permanent residency through a green card application. At the same time, they apply for a work authorization card that allows them to work in the United States for two years after their five years on the R-1 visa expires, and they wait for their green card application to be processed.

However, the processing of the work authorization card is also delayed. Therefore, if a religious worker’s five years on the R-1 visa expires with another 180-day grace period without receiving a work authorization card, they are again forced to stop working.

Applying for an employment authorization card takes 7.5 to 14.5 months at the California Service Center. The government required such requests to be processed within 90 days until 2017, when the rule was dropped. Bassey said the backlog has since grown and the pandemic has only made it worse.

“When there are all these delays from start to middle to finish, it puts everyone in a bind and that’s why we fight so hard and advocate so hard for USCIS to do something about the delays from start, middle to finish,” Bassey said. .

CLINIC represents more than 800 religious workers in the United States.

Remedies

Dorsonville said one solution advocated by the USCCB alongside interfaith leaders is for USCIS to receive more funding from Congress to address the issues through an overhaul of the current operation — hire more staff and invest in modernization of systems.

“On one of our last calls with them, one of the points was that they were trying to move from paperwork to computers and it was a long delay because they don’t have more tools to do that. and the budget is the same,” Dorsonville mentioned.

Olga Rojas, an attorney for the Archdiocese of Chicago, acknowledged that the recent drop in Form I-360 processing times is a step in the right direction, but still not enough. She suggested that USCIS allow the simultaneous filing of the I-360 and the green card application.

“It would give us more time,” Rojas said. Node.

One remedy that Bassey said CLINIC has advocated for is to increase the grace period from 180 days to 240 days to give everyone more time. She noted that it would also be helpful to make bounty processing more accessible so that more organizations can speed up the process.

Bassey added that in general, it is also important for USCIS to recognize the value that religious workers bring to the communities they serve in roles such as celebrating Mass and presiding over weddings and funerals, caring for the sick, pastoral care and counseling for young adults, and as essential workers throughout the pandemic.

“They just bring joy and comfort to the communities they serve,” Bassey said.

Follow John Lavenburg on Twitter: @johnlavenburg