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Religious Workforce Protection Act
To authorize the continuation of lawful nonimmigrant status for certain religious workers affected by the backlog for religious worker immigrant visas.
Summary
This bill amends immigration law to allow religious workers on R-1 nonimmigrant visas to extend their status beyond the normal 5-year limit while waiting for their immigrant visa applications to be processed. The extension applies to religious workers whose applications for permanent residency are backlogged but would otherwise qualify for immigrant status. The bill also provides limited job flexibility for certain religious workers with long-delayed permanent residency applications. The bill exempts certain religious workers who departed the United States due to the expiration of their nonimmigrant status from the typical 1-year foreign residence requirement.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA] (D-VA)
7 cosponsors
- Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME] (R-ME)
- Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] (D-DE)
- Sen. Crapo, Mike [R-ID] (R-ID)
- Sen. Graham, Lindsey [R-SC] (R-SC)
- Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] (D-MN)
- Sen. Murkowski, Lisa [R-AK] (R-AK)
- Sen. Risch, James E. [R-ID] (R-ID)
Actions (2)
- Apr 3, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. · senate
- Apr 3, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 3, 2025
Mr. Kaine (for himself, Ms. Collins, and Mr. Risch) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To authorize the continuation of lawful nonimmigrant status for certain religious workers affected by the backlog for religious worker immigrant visas.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Religious Workforce Protection Act”.
SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF NONIMMIGRANT STATUS FOR RELIGIOUS WORKERS CAUGHT IN LONG BACKLOGS FOR LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCE.
(a) In General.—Section 214(a)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(a)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(C) Notwithstanding section 101(a)(15)(R)(ii), an alien may apply for, and the Secretary of Homeland Security may grant, an extension of nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(R) until such alien’s application for adjustment of status or an immigrant visa has been processed and a decision has been made on such application if the alien—
“(i) is the principal or derivative beneficiary of an immigrant petition filed pursuant to section 204(a) for a preference status under section 203(b)(4); and
“(ii) is eligible to be granted such immigrant status absent the application of the numerical limitations under sections 201, 202, and 203.”.
(b) Conforming Amendment.—Section 101(a)(15)(R)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(R)(ii)) is amended by inserting “, except as provided in section 214(a)(2)(C),” after “5 years”.
SEC. 3. LIMITED JOB FLEXIBILITY FOR CERTAIN RELIGIOUS WORKERS WITH LONG-DELAYED APPLICATIONS FOR LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCE.
Section 204(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1154(j)) is amended by striking “subsection (a)(1)(D)” and inserting “subsection (a)(1)(F) or subsection (a)(1)(G)(i) (with respect to special immigrants described in section 101(a)(27)(C))”.
SEC. 4. EXEMPTION TO 1-YEAR FOREIGN RESIDENCE REQUIREMENT FOR CERTAIN NONIMMIGRANT RELIGIOUS WORKERS.
An alien described in section 214(a)(2)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as added by section 2(a), who departed from the United States due to the 5-year limitation on nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(R) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(R)) shall be exempt from the 1-year foreign residence requirement set forth in section 214.2(r)(6) of title 8, Code of Federal Regulations. <all>
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