Religious Workforce Protection Act
Sponsored By: Senator Timothy Kaine
Introduced
Summary
Keeps religious workers lawful and working while they wait for a green card. This bill would let certain R nonimmigrants stay beyond the usual five-year limit when they are waiting on an immigrant petition tied to the religious-worker preference, expand limited work flexibility, and waive a regulatory one-year foreign residence requirement for those forced to leave because of the five-year cap.
Show full summary
- Religious workers and their families: It would allow principals and derivatives in the religious-worker immigrant category to apply for extensions of R nonimmigrant status past the 5-year limit until their adjustment or immigrant visa case is decided. This fills gaps caused by long green card backlogs.
- Employment flexibility: It would broaden who can get limited authorization to engage in other employment while their immigrant cases are pending by changing which immigrant categories qualify under the employment-flexibility rule.
- Foreign-residence exemption: It would exempt these workers from the 1-year foreign-residence rule in the regulations if they departed because the five-year R limit forced them to leave.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
More time and flexibility for religious workers
This bill would let some R-visa religious workers extend their status beyond the usual five-year limit. They could get extensions while their adjustment-of-status or immigrant-visa application is pending. To qualify, you would need to be the principal or a derivative beneficiary of a 203(b)(4) immigrant petition and otherwise eligible but for numerical caps. The bill would add a specific exception to the five-year R cap. DHS could grant extensions until a final decision is made. It would also expand certain limited work-flexibility rules for people with pending green-card cases and exempt some who left because of the five-year cap from a regulatory one-year foreign-residence rule.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Timothy Kaine
VA • D
Cosponsors
Susan Collins
ME • R
Sponsored 4/3/2025
James Risch
ID • R
Sponsored 4/3/2025
Lindsey Graham
SC • R
Sponsored 5/15/2025
Christopher Coons
DE • D
Sponsored 5/21/2025
Lisa Murkowski
AK • R
Sponsored 6/12/2025
Mike Crapo
ID • R
Sponsored 6/17/2025
Amy Klobuchar
MN • D
Sponsored 12/17/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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