Religious workers stuck in visa backlog get temporary reprieve to stay and work
S. 1298 — Religious Workforce Protection Act · Filed by Tim Kaine (D-VA) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
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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 residency applications to be processed. It also gives these workers limited ability to change employers and exempts them from a requirement to spend one 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 extending temporary visa status for a specific class of immigrants (religious workers) whose permanent visa applications are delayed. It is a narrow, targeted relief measure addressing a documented administrative backlog.
What the text implies
- The bill does not increase the annual cap on EB-4 (religious worker) immigrant visas, so it only delays the backlog problem rather than solving it; workers still face eventual expiration unless Congress raises the visa cap.
- Job flexibility provision (section 3) allows workers to change employers within the religious worker category, potentially reducing leverage religious institutions hold over workers and improving labor mobility.
- Exemption from 1-year foreign residence requirement (section 4) may incentivize workers to remain in the U.S. rather than depart voluntarily, reducing administrative burden on DHS but also reducing voluntary compliance with prior law.
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 legal status continuity and employment authorization, reducing uncertainty and preventing forced departure. The public benefits from orderly immigration processing and retention of workers in religious institutions without disruption.
Named in the bill
Department of Homeland Security, Religious workers (EB-4 visa category), Religious institutions and organizations
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 5 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Apr 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 3, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the 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.
Tim Kaine, the sponsor, reported $125,658 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.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,950 characters) on Sep 28, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Religious workers stuck in visa backlog get temporary reprieve to stay and work” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1298 Report an error
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