Advocating for Religious Workers 

For CLINIC’s Religious Immigration Services (RIS) team, 2025 saw big ups and downs. It was a year of continued delays for clients, apprehension regarding rapid policy changes – but also unexpected progress on one key advocacy goal. 

CLINIC’s RIS department is one of the nation’s leading providers of legal services for religious workers. These are men and women who are priests, brothers, sisters, seminarians and other clergy who come to the United States for formation, education, and work. Religious workers serve in critical roles as pastors, teachers, health workers, and more, providing essential spiritual and social services for U.S. communities. 

Over the past few years, immigration and visa processes for religious workers have been beset by policy changes which have led to significant delays. Many religious workers from around the world have had to wait much longer than normal to be able to get the visas, work permits, and adjustments in immigration status needed to perform their work or study in the United States. This has caused a ripple effect of pain for U.S. communities of faith, when much-needed workers and clergy from abroad have had to suspend or cancel their service to congregations. 

“In 2025, our clients continued to face the same delays as in recent years,” said Miguel Naranjo, director of RIS. “One of the biggest remaining issues in 2025 was the requirement that religious workers applying for green cards must leave the country for an entire year after their initial visa expiration in order to adjust their status to permanent residency. This meant that beloved foreign-born pastors and religious workers had to disrupt their ministries for an entire year – leaving faith communities in the lurch and at great expense to the dioceses and congregations supporting them. A good number of our clients had to leave the country, and we did our best to support them throughout that hard time and as they returned.” 

In response, the RIS team doubled down on advocacy with the federal government for a change to this policy, often in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

In 2025, when the new administration came into office, the RIS team also watched with concern as immigration restrictions increased and rapid policy changes were announced. At first, it was uncertain how these changes would affect their clients. 

In June 2025, a travel ban was announced, with a full ban for nationals of 12 countries and a partial ban for 7 countries.  

“At first, the travel ban was fairly limited in terms of number of countries, and we didn’t see the effect of it right away. But we were worried that it would be expanded and that some of our clients would not be able to return after periods of time abroad,” said Graciela Mateo, managing attorney in RIS. 

In addition, the validity of visas for certain African countries was abruptly shortened in 2025. Rather than having 2.5 years for entry with an R-1 religious worker visa, nationals of certain countries – including Nigeria, from which many Catholic religious workers come – were suddenly given 90-day visa validity. This immediately impacted clients, causing hardship and stress. 

The environment of heightened restrictions for immigrants across the United States in general led to apprehension among RIS clients and a greater demand for presentations by staff on clients’ rights. The RIS staff presented at a number of conferences and gatherings in 2025, including by giving presentations on Know Your Rights for religious communities in the context of possible ICE visits to religious institutions. They created written materials for guidance as well.  

In December 2025, after another difficult year of case work and concern for clients, the RIS team received welcome news: the new administration had made a policy change to end the requirement that religious workers must depart the United States for an entire year after their initial visa expired to be able to return. While the change didn’t fix all of the policy issues clients faced, it was a huge positive development. 

“We had done so much advocacy on this issue, and it was a welcomed relief for us and our clients,” said Naranjo. “In the context of a year of delays and restrictions, it was good to see some critical progress.”