Religious Worker Green Card Rules Set for Appeals Court Hearing

A group of churches and religious organizations will try to convince an appeals court panel in Chicago that the government’s green card policies are biased against immigrant religious workers.

Employees of secular businesses can file their green card applications concurrently with the immigrant worker petitions their employers file to sponsor them. But ministers and other religious workers can’t apply for permanent residency until after US Citizenship and Immigration Services approves the church or religious organization’s immigrant worker petition.

Many churches and religious employers sponsor workers on temporary R-1 visas because they can’t fill minister roles. But the five-year duration of ...