Bill would help alleviate visa application backlog for foreign religious workers

June 25, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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BOROUGHWIDE — A BILL BEING CONSIDERED IN THE U.S. SENATE WOULD HELP INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS WORKERS caught up in a backlog of visa applications, including for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, reports the Tablet diocesan newspaper. Foreign-born priests and religious workers were instructed that they would have to leave the U.S. if they did not receive their green cards before their temporary work visas expired; yet a backlog in the Employment-Based, Fourth Preference (EB-4) visas complicated the process. Among those facing disruption of their ministries in the States are about 20 men and women religious who are currently assigned to the Brooklyn Diocese. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a Jesuit-educated Catholic, introduced the Religious Workforce Protection Act, which would “authorize the continuation of lawful nonimmigrant status for certain religious workers affected by the backlog for religious worker immigrant visas.”

“We rely on the ministry of priests and religious from other countries to meet our many sacramental and pastoral needs here in Brooklyn and Queens,” Diocesan Bishop Robert Brennan told The Tablet. “I am deeply grateful for their service, and count on Congress to find a legislative remedy to the current dilemma.”

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