When Immigration Laws Affect The Practice Of Spirituality

Here’s the story of how the delay by the immigration service in one extraordinary case caused immense stress for a congregation of thousands during one of the worst pandemics in history.

As an immigration attorney, I have the privilege of helping people from different walks of life. Sometimes it is an American individual reuniting with a loved one. Sometimes it is an American organization trying to recruit foreign talent to further their U.S. business purposes. And there is an alphabet-length list of visa types to help them pursue those. One is the religious visa, used generally by churches, temples, synagogues, or schools that provide religious education.

The visa applications are often for priests, pastors, teachers, or workers in the religious field, who want to come to the U.S. to lead and perform sacred religious rituals or teach religious education.

There are two forms of visas available to them, — a temporary visa, R-1, and a permanent one that uses Form I-360.

The R-1 is for a total of five years and given in 2.5-year intervals. Decisions are usually delivered pretty quickly, especially if an expedited fee is paid.

For permanent status there is no option for an expedited fee, and the application processing is laboriously slow. We used to expect it to take about seven to nine months; these days we have no idea how long it takes.

Here’s the story of how the delay by the immigration service in one extraordinary case caused immense stress for a congregation of thousands during one of the worst pandemics in history.

Having a place of worship is important to most communities. One particular immigrant community in Seattle built its own church about two decades ago. They wanted to create a place of worship, education, and spiritual sanctuary. And as the community grew, they needed more priests and pastors to serve the growing congregation; from general worship to specialty rituals, the needs were unique to this religious group.

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As their search to fill those positions in the U.S. failed, they looked elsewhere. And, over the years, like many churches, they, too, have been able to fulfill their community needs with trained and experienced priests from abroad.

For one particular priest on an R-1 visa, the church intended to apply for a permanent green card so that the priest could continue to serve the congregation without any disruptions. With about a year left on this R-1 status, we looked at a calendar and made some educated guesses on the processing times for approving the I-360. We estimated, based on past experience, that would happen around June 2020, soon after which we would file the green card application, Form I-485. This timeline gave us about three to four months to spare on the five-year deadline.

Our client would be able to remain in the U.S. and on the work permit that accompanied the pending green card application and continue to serve the church. We did not take into account an unforeseen pandemic that could derail these carefully thought-out plans.

In early 2020, before the coronavirus halted everything, and anxious about the tight timeline, we started making inquiries with U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) about the status of the priest’s pending I-360 application. We did not receive a helpful response. We made those inquiries periodically as the months went by but became increasingly concerned as the pandemic worsened because we began to notice delays at every stage for all our cases.

We sought assistance from our local congressional representative, as we sometimes do with tough cases, and were fortunate to have one of the most experienced and compassionate caseworkers from that office on our side. But he, too, was given the brush-off by USCIS.

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During this time, like many other religious organizations, the church transitioned all its services and events online. With people stuck at home, attendance peaked. The fears that gripped the nation in 2020 — a year of protests, election anxiety, social isolation, homeschooling kids, working from home, the change in our very way of life — were causing mental anguish for the nation. This congregation was not immune.

When people are stressed, scared, and overwhelmed, they often turn to religion and spirituality as ways of coping. And here, the church had a priest they respected, admired, and loved. In fact, the pandemic brought the community closer in unprecedented ways. The church, for example, increased the number of services during weekends and evenings so people wouldn’t feel isolated. And the priests made more (masked) individualized home visits for special rituals than they would have.

As we approached the fall of 2020, the priest was reaching the end of his fifth and final year on the temporary visa, and the I-360 was still pending.  To maintain status in the hopes that the approval would arrive soon, we applied to change the priest’s status to that of visitor, on a B-2 tourist’s visa, especially since flying was practically impossible due to COVID-19 airline restrictions and travels bans. My previous article here will explain other complications that delayed the B-2 visa.

Again, we made inquiries through our congressional representative, but to date, the I-360 remains pending. And as it became clear that this cherished priest would have to leave the country, an already stressed and anxious congregation inundated the congressperson’s office with phone calls.

As I see it, there are three things that could have helped the priest’s case. Firstly, USCIS should allow the church the opportunity to pay additional fees to expedite the case. As I noted before, premium processing is available for several categories of visa applications, but not for Form I-360.

Secondly, the government should allow for concurrent filing of Forms I-485 and I-360. A pending I-485 allows a person to remain in the U.S. until the case is decided.

And finally, notwithstanding the pandemic, all cases were slowed under the previous administration. Changes need to be made to increase USCIS staff level to reduce these crisis-level backlogs.

To date, the case is still pending, the priest has left the country, and the congregation is dealing with yet another loss in their lives. Once the green card application is processed, he will likely be able to return but that may take two years, possibly longer.

You may not have thought that immigration laws could be a barrier to the practice of spirituality, but during one of the most challenging times the world has confronted in modern history, that is exactly what happened.


Tahmina Watson is the founding attorney of Watson Immigration Law in Seattle, where she practices US immigration law focusing on business immigration. She has been blogging about immigration law since 2008 and has written numerous articles in many publications. She is the author of Legal Heroes in the Trump Era: Be Inspired. Expand Your Impact. Change the World and The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth and Economic Prosperity in America.  She is also the founder of The Washington Immigrant Defense Network (WIDEN), which funds and facilitates legal representation in the immigration courtroom, and co-founder of Airport Lawyers, which provided critical services during the early travel bans. Tahmina is regularly quoted in the media and is the host of the podcast Tahmina Talks Immigration. She was recently honored by the Puget Sound Business Journal as one of the 2020 Women of Influence. You can reach her by email at tahmina@watsonimmigrationlaw.com or follow her on Twitter at @tahminawatson.