Congress extends Religious Worker Visa program

October 25, 2009

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/25/1008695/congress-extends-religious-worker-visa-program

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Congress has extended the Religious Worker Visa Program, which helps small Jewish communities, for three more years.

The visa program makes available up to 5,000 permanent immigrant visas each year for religious workers in a variety of denominations. The program is particularly important to small Jewish communities in remote areas who find it difficult to fill positions and who rely on the visas to bring in rabbis, cantors, kosher butchers, Hebrew school teachers and other religious workers.

The legislation also includes a provision to end the "widow penalty," so that recently married immigrants whose citizen spouses die before their green-card paperwork is processed will no longer be subject to automatic deportation. It was passed as part of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Committee Report, which passed the Senate on Tuesday and the House the previous week, and which President Obama is expected to sign it into law.

HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, hailed the bill's passage.

"This is an important step in ensuring that the Jewish community can keep the dedicated and experienced teachers and other foreign religious workers that we rely on," said Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of HIAS, noting the leadership of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (R-Calif.).

The bill extends the program, which began in 1990, through September 2012.