Immigration Law

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES RELIGIOUS WORKER EXTENSION BILL

By Greg Siskind

The US House passed by voice vote HR 5570, a bill which extends the green card program for special immigrant religious workers in religious occupations and vocations. The program was set to expire on October 1st of this year. The extension is until October 1st, 2010. However, the program will extend until 2016 if DHS issues anti-fraud regulations before the 2010 sunset date. DHS is also required to issue a report to Congress containing the results of a study on the effectiveness of the anti-fraud regulations and on a random audit of non-minister religious worker cases to see if such workers are still employed by the religious organization that petitioned for them or, if not, the reasons for their departure from the job. The bill must now pass in the Senate and be signed by the President before it becomes law.

Here is the bill in PDF format - Download hr5570Suspension.pdf

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on April 15, 2008 (boomark / email).