(ZENIT News / Paterson, NJ, 17.08.2014).- The Catholic diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, has initiated a legal battle against the U.S. Department of State, filing a claim with the State’s District Court. This action, which is supported by five priests from Colombia and the Philippines is centered on recent changes in visa processing regulations that, according to the plaintiffs, threaten the ability of the priests to exercise their ministry in the country.
In April 2023, a change was implemented to the Law of Immigration and Nationality, which has generated chaos in visa processing regulations for religious workers. The new policy groups “special young immigrants” in the same immigration category as those with religious workers’ visas, which has added around 100,000 individuals to a category that already had an annual limit of 10,000 green cards. This change, for which the Government hasn’t given a clear explanation, has caused a significant delay in the processing of permanent residence applications.
Before this change, priests that entered the United States with an R-1 visa could request permanent residence with the expectation of obtaining their green card within a period of 18 months. However, now they face the possibility of waiting up to15 years, which obliges them to leave the country when their temporal visas expire, and return after a year with a new R-1 visa.
This delay threatens to generate serious problems for many dioceses in the United States, which depend in great measure on priests from abroad to keep their parishes and ministries functioning. The diocese of Paterson and the plaintiff priests argue that if this situation isn’t resolved, many parishes could be without pastoral care as priests are obliged to leave the country when their visas expire.
During the Plenary Assembly of the Conference of Bishops of the United States, in June 2024, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, pointed out that the delay in processing visas is a growing concern. According to Bishop Seitz, this situation is untenable and it has already begun to affect some dioceses, which are obliged to bid farewell to their priests, as their visas have expired. The Bishop also pointed out that, although the Migration Committee is committed to finding solutions through the Government, ultimately only the Congress can give a definitive solution to this problem.
In response to the criticisms, the Department of State acknowledged that the change of policy has cause long waits for religious workers, but insists that Congress alone has the power to correct the imbalance created between the limited offer of visas and the growing demand. This situation has jeopardized numerous diocese throughout the country, especially in a context in which almost 38% of recently ordained priests in the United States are of foreign origin.
