John Valdez’s Legal Blog

On September 27, 2008, the House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 3606, which cleared the Senate on September 26, 2008.  This Bill extends the Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious Worker Program, which provides a pathway to U.S. permanent residence to nonminister religious workers.  The program was due to expire on October 1, 2008.  The President is expected to sign the Bill into law.

This is very good news for religious workers, especially for those who already have pending applications for permanent residence but were uncertain if they would ever receive a green card because of the expiring law.  The extension is, however, a short one.  Congress has only extended the religious worker law to march 9, 2009.

It appears that Congress granted only a short extension of the religous worker law because it wants to see if the Department of Homeland Security can takes sufficient measures to reduce the instances of fraud in the Program.  The USCIS has published reports of high instances of fraud in religous worker applications.  To reduce fraud, Senate Bill 3606 includes the following new provisions:

• The issuance of final regulations, within 30 days of the passage of the Act, to eliminate or reduce fraud;
• Certification to Congress and public notice in the Federal Register that these regulations have been issued; and
• Not later than March 9, 2009, submission of a report to Congress on the effectiveness of the regulations.

In the past, the USCIS has been very slow to publish needed regulations in a variety of immigration areas.  I hope that it will pass the religious worker fraud provisions quickly, as required by the Congressional mandate.  If it does not, the Program might not receive another extension.