Religious workers living in the US get quicker route to citizenship
April 17 2009 by Bryan Palmer
A federal judge has ordered the reversal of a US Immigration policy that refused religious workers the opportunity to file for permanent residency until their US visa applications from employers have been processed the system.
The reversal was ordered in light of the frequent delays to the employers' visa application process that led to many religious workers having to return home as their temporary US work visas had expired while they were waiting for their petition for residency to be filed.
The judge, Robert Lasnik, has given the Department of Homeland Security 20 days to confer with lawyers representing religious workers to work on a new policy that will incorporate his order.
Religious workers have welcomed the ruling but are remaining cautious, Anna Marie Gibbons, from the group CLINIC which is concerned with immigration and protection for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, says that the Department of Homeland Security could still appeal the ruling.
However, if an appeal does not materialise, then Gibbons is hopeful that hundreds of people working in the US in the religious realm will be able to apply for citizenship without the concern that their time will run out.
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