Congress extends work visas for religious workers stuck in immigration backlog

What it does

This bill allows certain religious workers whose immigrant visa applications are stuck in a backlog to extend their temporary nonimmigrant status beyond the normal 5-year limit while waiting for their permanent residence applications to be processed. It also gives these workers limited ability to change employers and exempts them from a requirement to spend a year living abroad if they had to leave the U.S. due to the visa expiration.

Why we flagged it

The bill's sole operative mechanism is to extend temporary visa status for a specific class of workers (religious workers with pending permanent residence applications) who would otherwise be forced to depart the U.S. due to an existing time limit. It is a targeted relief measure, not a broad policy change.

What the text implies

• The bill does not increase the overall number of religious worker visas available; it only allows existing applicants to remain in status while waiting. The underlying backlog and numerical caps remain unchanged, so relief is temporary unless the backlog itself is addressed.
• Religious organizations and institutions employing these workers gain continuity of staffing and avoid disruption from forced departures, which may indirectly benefit their operations and mission delivery.
• The exemption from the 1-year foreign residence requirement (§ 4) may allow workers to re-enter the U.S. more quickly if they were forced to depart, reducing the economic and personal cost of the visa cap.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Religious workers caught in visa backlogs gain the ability to remain employed and legally present in the U.S. while their permanent residence applications are processed, avoiding forced departure and job loss. The bill removes an arbitrary time constraint that was creating hardship for workers and their employers without imposing new costs on the public.

Who stands to gain

• Religious organizations and institutions employing R-visa workers
• Immigration law firms and consultants advising affected workers

Named in the bill

Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Section 214(a)(2), Section 101(a)(15)(R), Section 204(a), Section 203(b)(4), Religious worker visa (R-visa)

Where it stands

37 cosponsors: 22 Democrats, 15 Republicans.

• Apr 7, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Apr 7, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $0 in lobbying spend. A filing names 31 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Mike Carey, the sponsor, reported $1,809,017 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Network — $0 on 3 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.