GAO

United States General Accounting Office

Report to the Congressional Requesters

March 1999 VISA ISSUANCE

Issues Concerning the 

Religious Worker Visa 

Program

GAO/NSIAD-99-67

United States

General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548 Letr

Page 1 GAO/NSIAD-99-67 Visa Issuance

GAO

National Security and

International Affairs Division Letr

B-279903

March 26, 1999

The Honorable Lamar Smith

Chairman

The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee

Ranking Minority Member

Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims

Committee on the Judiciary

House of Representatives

The Honorable Melvin Watt

House of Representatives

The Honorable Spencer Abraham

Chairman

The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy

Ranking Minority Member

Subcommittee on Immigration

Committee on the Judiciary

United States Senate

In response to concerns from the U.S. religious community about shortages 

of domestic religious workers to fill vacancies for religious positions,1 the 

Congress established special immigrant and nonimmigrant visa2

 categories 

in 1990, for religious workers, religious professionals, and ministers. 

Religious worker visas constituted about 11,000, of the 7 million immigrant 

and nonimmigrant visas issued in fiscal year 1997. The Department of State 

and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) share responsibility 

for issuing visas and admitting aliens into the United States. As a result of 

some recent fraud investigations, both agencies have expressed concern 

that some individuals and organizations that sponsor religious workers 

may be exploiting this category to enable unqualified aliens to enter or stay 

in the United States illegally. 

1The legislation uses the term "religious worker" to apply to (1) ministers, (2) those who work in a 

professional capacity in a religious vocation or occupation, and (3) religious workers and those in a 

religious vocation. This report focuses on the third category and, as used, includes those in vocations 

such as nuns and monks and those engaged in work related to a traditional religious function, including 

liturgical workers, religious instructors, counselors, cantors, workers in religious hospitals, and 

missionaries.

2

Immigrant visas are for permanent stays in the United States, and nonimmigrant visas are for 

temporary stays.
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At your request, we determined (1) the extent and nature of any fraud3 INS 

and State have identified in the religious worker visa program4

 and (2) any 

steps INS and State have taken or plan to take to change the visa screening 

process. To meet our objectives, we interviewed INS and State 

headquarters officials, and we visited INS facilities in California, New York, 

Texas, and Vermont5

 responsible for processing visas and investigating 

fraud. We also met with representatives of 12 religious organizations 

involved in the program. 

Results in Brief Although the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the State 

Department have identified some program fraud through the visa screening 

process and investigations, they do not have data or analysis to firmly 

establish the extent of fraud in the religious worker visa program. The 

nature of the fraud uncovered typically involved (1) applicants making 

false statements about their qualifications as religious workers or their 

exact plans in the United States or (2) conspiracy between an applicant and 

a sponsoring organization to misrepresent material facts about the 

applicant's qualifications or the nature of the position to be filled. INS and 

State sometimes detect fraud schemes when a sponsoring organization 

petitions INS for hundreds of religious workers at a time.

In order to increase the availability of information necessary to allow 

reviewers to determine the eligibility of visa applicants and sponsors, INS, 

with State's support, is considering changes to the visa screening process. 

These changes include (1) having an applicant submit additional evidence 

of his or her qualifications, (2) having the sponsoring organization submit 

additional evidence regarding its ability to financially support the 

applicant, and (3) incorporating new software applications that alert 

reviewers to organizations filing petitions for numerous workers. INS is 

also proposing a regulatory change to expressly require that the prior work 

experience specified for immigrant religious worker visa applicants be

3

Immigration fraud involves the willful intent to circumvent the immigration laws of the United States 

by submitting false documents or misrepresenting material facts.

4By "program" we mean all of the requirements, processes, and procedures related to the issuance of 

religious worker visas.

5

INS is organized into 3 regions, 33 district offices, 3 overseas offices, and a number of other offices. It 

also has service centers in California, Nebraska, Texas, and Vermont that process petitions, including 

those for religious workers. Each service center generally serves a specific geographic area and 

processes petitions from applicants from states in its respective jurisdiction.
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full-time and that the individuals work for the religious organization in the 

United States on a full-time basis. The religious organizations we met with 

believe the current program meets their needs. Of the seven organizations 

commenting on the proposed regulatory change, three opposed it because 

some part-time religious workers that are currently eligible may no longer 

qualify.

Background The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 established special immigrant 

and nonimmigrant categories for religious workers, religious professionals, 

and ministers.6

 The act authorizes special immigrants to be admitted to the 

United States as religious workers if, for 2 years prior to admission, they 

have been members of a religious denomination having a bona fide, 

nonprofit, religious organization in the United States; they intend to enter 

the United States to work for the organization7 at the organization's request 

in a religious vocation or occupation; and they have been carrying on the 

religious work continuously for at least 2 years immediately preceding their 

application for admission. The act established a limit of 5,0008 on the 

number of special immigrant religious workers and religious professionals 

that can be admitted in any one year. Although the special immigrant 

provisions for religious workers and religious professionals were to expire 

on October 1, 1994, they have been amended twice and extended to 

October 1, 2000. 

Applying for an immigrant religious worker visa is a two-step process. 

First, a petition must be filed with INS. A petition is the form the 

sponsoring individual or organization must file on behalf of an alien to 

demonstrate that the alien meets the requirements of a specific 

immigration category. The petition must include supporting 

documentation showing that the religious worker will be working for a 

religious organization and how the religious worker will be paid or 

remunerated. The documentation should also clearly indicate that the 

religious worker will not be solely dependent on supplemental employment 

6

Public Law 101-649, 104 Stat. 5004, 5027 (Nov. 29, 1990). The legislation also applies to spouses and 

children of religious workers.

7The act also authorizes the religious workers to work for a bona fide organization that is affiliated with 

the religious denomination and is exempt from taxation as an organization described in

section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

8

The employment-based preference limitation, under which special immigrant religious workers are 

included, is 140,000.
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or solicitation of funds for support. INS reviewers examine the petitions 

and supporting documentation to determine if the alien meets the program 

requirements. If INS approves the petition, the alien files an application for 

an adjustment of status with INS if he or she is already in the United States 

or an application for a visa with a State overseas post if he or she is abroad. 

If the alien does not meet the requirements, INS denies the petition. About 

85 percent of those admitted for permanent residence as religious workers 

in fiscal years 1996 and 1997 were already in the United States.

Nonimmigrant religious workers can be admitted under the same 

conditions as special immigrant religious workers, except that there is no 

requirement for prior religious work experience, and the maximum period 

of stay for nonimmigrant religious workers is 5 years. The authorization 

for admission of nonimmigrant religious workers did not contain sunset 

restrictions nor any limit on the number that can be admitted. To obtain a 

nonimmigrant visa, the alien files an application, but no petition is required. 

Documentation required in support of the visa application must establish 

the arrangements made, if any, for remuneration, including the amount and 

source of any salary, a description of any other type of remuneration, and a 

statement indicating whether the remuneration will be in exchange for 

services rendered. The majority of nonimmigrant religious workers applies 

and receives their visas abroad through State's overseas posts. (See app. I 

for more information on immigrant and nonimmigrant religious worker 

visa issuance.)

The Extent and Nature 

of Fraud

Both INS and State have expressed concern about fraud in the religious 

worker visa program, but they do not have data or analysis to firmly 

establish the extent of the problem. Their knowledge of program fraud is 

based on information developed primarily from fraud investigations and 

through the visa screening process. INS has conducted several fraud 

investigations since 1994 involving hundreds of applicants. In addition, 

fraud has been identified through INS' and State's visa screening processes. 

The agencies' reviewers generally deny petitions and visas to unqualified 

applicants, but according to the agencies' officials, it is difficult to prove 

willful intent to commit fraud. The types of fraud the agencies have 

encountered often involved petitioners making false statements about the 

length of time that the applicant was a member of the religious organization 

and the nature of the qualifying work experience. Some of the 

investigations involved religious organizations petitioning for more 

workers than they can reasonably support. Evidence uncovered by INS 
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suggests that some of these organizations exist solely as a means to carry 

out immigration fraud. 

Extent of Fraud Not Known INS and State have uncovered incidents of fraud in the religious worker 

visa program, but they do not routinely investigate questionable visa 

petitions and applications or report fraud information by type of visa. 

State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the office responsible for 

investigating the use of counterfeit U.S. passports and visas, has not 

conducted any investigations of religious worker visa fraud. State's 

antifraud units at overseas posts sometimes review suspicious applications 

to screen out ineligible applicants, but they do not routinely report the 

results to State's headquarters. Individual cases of suspected fraud are 

generally not investigated, unless the suspected fraud is part of a larger 

scheme to systematically circumvent immigration laws. Moreover, INS 

does not routinely follow up on recipients of employment-based visas, 

including religious visas, to determine whether they comply with the law.

The agencies generally deny questionable visa petitions and applications 

they receive. Most are not denied for fraud, but for other reasons, such as 

failing to comply with statutory requirements and regulations, including 

failure to provide requested documents. They give fraud as the reason for 

the denial when they have sufficient evidence that the applicant or 

petitioner willfully misrepresented a material fact. An INS workload report 

on immigrant petitions received, approved, and denied, showed that of the 

approximately 8,400 petitions for religious workers processed in fiscal year 

1998, 3 percent were denied for suspected fraud. The reported 3-percent 

fraud denial rate for religious worker petitions was the third highest fraud 

denial rate among the 44 different immigrant petition categories listed. The 

fraud denial rate for most of the other categories was less than 1 percent. 

State Department statistics on visa denials do not identify denials by type 

of visa. However, a 1998 State survey of 83 overseas posts identified 

instances of fraud uncovered during visa processing.

Investigations Illustrate 

Schemes Used to 

Circumvent Immigration 

Laws

At our request, the Fraud Branch at INS' Office of Investigations in 

Washington, D.C., surveyed fraud units in INS' district and suboffices to 

identify the number of active and closed fraud investigations involving 

religious worker visas since 1994. The units identified 54 such 

investigations involving about 1,700 petitions9

 during the 5-year period. 

The 54 INS investigations, of which about 40 are closed, ranged from cases 

involving individual fraud schemes to organized fraud rings.10 For 
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example, the fraud unit in the Chicago District Office investigated 30 cases 

involving individuals who failed to meet the 2-year experience requirement. 

At least five investigations performed by INS since 1994 have involved 

individuals or organizations filing petitions for hundreds of religious 

workers. For example, in 1995, INS investigated a pastor who filed 450 

immigrant religious worker petitions covering over 900 individuals, 

falsifying the number of years the aliens had been a member of the church. 

The pastor died of natural causes before an indictment could be returned, 

and the petitions were denied or allowed to expire. INS recently completed 

an investigation it started in 1994 involving suspects who provided false 

supporting documents to INS to show that the aliens met the 2-year work 

experience requirement. This investigation, which involved over 400 

petitions, ultimately led to the arrests of six individuals, guilty pleas to 

charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, and additional investigations 

of several similar schemes. In another recent case, reviewers at INS' 

Vermont Service Center became suspicious when one organization, which 

had filed about 100 petitions for immigrant visas the previous 2 years 

combined, filed over 200 petitions the third year. The reviewers doubted 

that the organization could support so many full-time workers and referred 

the case to an INS district office fraud unit where it is currently under 

investigation.

Some investigations were initiated because of suspicious activity identified 

by State Department consular officials. For example, consular officers at 

the U.S. embassy in Suva, Fiji, became suspicious of a church that filed 

petitions on behalf of 30 individuals from Fiji who were in the United States 

on expired visitors' visas. The information was forwarded to INS for 

investigation. The investigation revealed that only 1 of the 30 petitions met 

the requirements for a religious worker visa. The post suspected that this 

scheme was related to a larger one involving petitions on behalf of Tonga 

residents to stay in the United States illegally. Also, the U.S. embassy in 

Bogota uncovered a fraud scheme in which the local church was providing 

applicants with false documents to demonstrate that the applicants had 

been members of the church for the required 2-year period. The embassy's 

antifraud unit discovered that in some cases the applicants had recently 

joined the church, and in other cases, they had no membership affiliation at 

all. 

9To arrive at these figures, we counted the number of investigations reported by each unit responding to 

the INS survey and the number of petitions involved when they were identified.

10In contrast, INS opened over 6,000 immigration fraud investigations in fiscal year 1997.
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Changes to the Visa 

Screening Process

INS and State reviewers stated that they are not confident that the 

agencies' screening process is identifying all unqualified applicants and 

sponsoring organizations. They attributed the problem to the lack of 

sufficient information to determine the eligibility of visa applicants and 

their sponsors. INS, with State's support, is considering a number of steps 

to address this problem.

Lack of Sufficient 

Information 

INS requires the petitioner to provide evidence that (1) the organization 

qualifies as a nonprofit organization, (2) the alien meets the qualifications 

for an immigrant religious worker visa, and (3) the alien will be paid or 

otherwise remunerated by the religious organization.

INS and State reviewers have asserted that sometimes the required 

supporting evidence, although minimally acceptable, consists of little more 

than a letter from the sponsoring organization and does not adequately 

establish an applicant's eligibility as a religious worker or the sponsoring 

organization's ability to pay the worker. The reviewer can deny the 

application or petition pending the receipt of additional information, but 

such actions take more time. The INS reviewers stated that more specific 

information about the applicant's training and qualifications and the exact 

nature of the position to be filled, including the number of petitions 

previously filed, should be provided up front, similar to other

employment-based visa categories. In addition, unlike most other 

employment-based visas, the applicant can file a petition on his or her own 

behalf and, although supporting documentation from the sponsoring 

organization is still required, all of it can be submitted by the applicant. For 

most other employment-based visa categories, the petition and supporting 

documentation must be submitted by the potential employer. The 

reviewers believe INS should require information from independently 

verifiable sources. The reviewers also stated that the documents should be 

current. They said that sometimes the sponsoring organizations submit 

copies of their original tax-exemption form, which may no longer be valid.

A related issue raised by State's overseas posts concerns the definition of a 

"religious worker." They believe that the definition of religious worker is 

too broad, making the religious worker visa program an attractive vehicle 

for fraud and abuse. According to the survey, posts sometimes struggled 

with what they considered to be the "marginal" nature of some of the 

religious positions used by the applicants. A common sentiment was that 

almost anyone involved with a church, aside from those occupations that 
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were not intended to be covered by the 1990 religious worker visa 

legislation, for example, maintenance and cleaning staff, could qualify as a 

religious worker.

INS Is Considering Steps to 

Address the Problems 

INS is developing a number of initiatives to improve its visa screening 

process and to detect and deter fraud. Most of these initiatives are focused 

on requiring petitions to include more comprehensive information to allow 

reviewers to make better informed decisions. Some of the service centers 

are using the capabilities of commercial software to enhance their ability to 

identify patterns and trends that may indicate fraud. State officials said 

they would support INS' efforts to increase evidentiary standards. Further, 

State is consulting with the Internal Revenue Service and the Department 

of Labor to develop more comprehensive information on religious 

occupations and organizations to help the overseas posts better understand 

the definition of "religious worker" and "traditional" religious functions. 

Full-time Work Requirement INS is in the process of implementing a proposed regulatory change to 

expressly require that the prior work experience specified for immigrant 

religious worker visa applicants be full-time work.11 The proposed rule 

also states that the documentation supporting an applicant's petition must 

indicate that the religious worker will be working for the religious 

organization in the United States on a full-time basis. INS officials stated 

that INS is changing the regulation to address the problem of individuals 

doing part-time voluntary work for a religious organization while working 

full-time in a secular occupation. They said an applicant's ability to 

demonstrate 2 years of prior full-time, paid religious work experience is a 

good indication that the individual is a committed religious worker. They 

also believe such experience is a good indicator that the individual will be 

doing full-time religious work for which the organization will pay a salary. 

The proposed changes were initially published for comment in June 1995. 

According to INS, it plans to finalize the regulatory change in October 1999. 

Additional Documentary 

Requirements

INS is also considering revising its requirements for the documents that 

must be initially submitted by the petitioner for an immigrant visa. Such 

documents could include pay stubs to show that the worker was 

compensated for full-time work and bank statements to demonstrate that 

11As previously mentioned, current law requires applicants to have been performing religious work 

continuously for at least 2 years before filing their petitions and that they are to work for the requesting 

organization once they enter the United States.
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the organizations have sufficient financial resources to support their 

worker or workers. INS has the authority to ask for additional evidence to 

verify information in the petitions, and some INS reviewers will defer 

making a final decision until the organization furnishes this type of 

supplemental information. The suggested change involving additional 

documentation would increase the amount of information that all 

organizations must initially submit and that all adjudicators would use to 

review petitions. By initially requiring more specific documents and by 

clarifying the full-time religious work requirements, INS may also reduce 

the number of filings by unqualified applicants.

INS has no timetable for implementing the changes to the requirements for 

supporting documents. However, INS officials stated that they might revise 

the documentary requirements after the agency redrafts or finalizes its 

proposed rule change on the full-time work experience requirement. 

According to a State official, State would participate in any changes to the 

requirements for immigrant visas and publish visa regulations jointly with 

INS. He said that, if appropriate, State would revise its documentary 

requirements for nonimmigrant visas to correspond with INS' suggested 

revisions for immigrant visas.

Improved Access to INS Data 

Can Help Verify Eligibility 

Until recently, reviewers could not quickly and efficiently determine how 

many filings had been made by a petitioning organization. As previously 

discussed, organizations petitioning for numbers of workers that appear to 

be inconsistent with the organization's membership size and financial 

resources to support the workers sometimes indicates fraud. However, 

until a pattern had been identified, the reviewers could not know if the 

petitions were potentially fraudulent. For example, one organization 

currently under investigation had 37 petitions approved in fiscal year 1996 

and 76 petitions approved in fiscal year 1997 before the pattern was 

detected. While all service centers now have the capability to identify 

multiple filers, the California and Vermont Service Centers have developed 

their own systems using commercial off-the-shelf software (Microsoft SQL 

for California and Oracle and Access for Vermont), which they believe 

provides more efficient inquiry and reporting capability than the system 

provided by INS headquarters. In addition, the two service centers are in 

the process of consolidating their databases so that they can share data.

Views of Religious 

Organizations

We visited 12 religious organizations in California, New York, Maryland, 

and the District of Columbia to discuss their experience with the religious 

worker visa program. The religious organizations generally believed that 
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the program met their needs. For example, several of the organizations use 

the program to meet the needs of growing ethnic congregations. One 

church with 7,000 members uses the program to provide workers to 

minister to its separate Filipino, Korean, Hispanic, and French- and 

English-speaking African congregations. A religious organization with a 

worldwide membership uses the program to recruit native speakers 

familiar with the religion to serve as religious translators and broadcasters. 

Another religious organization with 3 million members in more than 120 

countries uses nonimmigrant religious workers to participate in

church-sponsored community service programs.

We asked representatives of the organizations for their opinions of INS' 

proposed changes to the program. Of the seven commenting on the

full-time work experience requirement, four stated that the proposal would 

not negatively affect their organization, because the majority of the 

applicants they sponsor for immigrant religious worker visas have already 

been serving in full-time capacities. However, three expressed 

reservations. For example, the representative of one religious 

organization stated that the requirement might adversely affect applicants 

who work for congregations in which ministerial duties are shared. The 

representative of another organization stated that the full-time work 

experience requirement could be problematic for those engaged in 

religious vocations if proof of paid full-time work was required, because 

some individuals are often not paid a salary. He said the requirement could 

also cause problems for some individuals who perform their religious 

duties part-time while studying for the priesthood or ministry.

Three of the four religious organizations commenting on the proposed 

change in documentary evidence requirements stated that the change 

would not pose a problem. However, the one opposed to the proposed 

change pointed out that INS already has the discretion to ask for additional 

documents when required and does not believe that religious employers 

and applicants should routinely be required to assume additional 

documentary burdens. Some representatives also stated that INS should 

avoid the appearance of deciding for a religious organization what 

constitutes religious work.

In addition to asking for their opinions on the potential modifications 

proposed by INS, we also asked the religious organizations for their 

suggestions for improving the program. Three of the organizations 

suggested making the special immigrant religious worker visa category 

permanent. The representative of one of the religious organizations said 
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this would eliminate the glut of petitions that are filed before the "sunset" 

date. One organization that was familiar with student visas suggested that 

a sponsoring organization could submit to INS an annual status report on 

each of its nonimmigrant religious workers, much like academic 

institutions that must annually certify the status of foreign students. 

Another organization suggested that INS provide some materials 

concerning the religious worker visa program in some foreign languages to 

help ensure that organizations fully understand the regulations and 

requirements of the program.

Conclusion Both INS and State are attempting to balance the need to screen out 

unqualified applicants with the religious worker visa program's original 

purpose of facilitating the entry of qualified religious workers. The 

program modifications that INS is undertaking or plans to undertake to 

verify the accuracy of petitions for immigrant religious worker visas are 

reasonable steps to improve program integrity. If implemented, the 

modifications should help to better screen visa applicants and religious 

organizations. 

Agency Comments In oral comments on a draft of this report, INS and State concurred with 

the report's findings and conclusions. INS noted that its planned regulatory 

change and other steps underway to improve its screening process should 

help reduce the incidence of fraud. INS and State also provided technical 

comments, which we have incorporated as appropriate. 

Scope and 

Methodology

To determine whether INS and State have data on any fraud in the religious 

worker visa program and to determine the nature of any abuse, we met 

with INS and State headquarters officials and visited three of the four INS 

service centers responsible for processing and approving religious worker 

visas. We also analyzed information from about 700 religious worker visa 

petitions denied by the California Service Center between January 1, 1996, 

and August 18, 1997, and data from about 83 responses to a State 

Department survey of 100 of its overseas posts in February 1998. We met 

with officials at INS' New York District Office responsible for interviewing 

visa applicants, and other officials to discuss INS' efforts to identify 

patterns and trends in the use of the program that could indicate fraud. We 

also met with officials of State's Fraud Prevention Program and Office of 

Diplomatic Security to discuss State's efforts to identify and investigate 
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religious worker visa fraud. In addition, we met with fraud investigators 

from INS' Los Angeles District Office to discuss specific fraud 

investigations and INS' processes for accepting, investigating, and 

resolving fraud cases. 

We interviewed INS and State officials to discuss their agencies' processes 

and procedures for determining if visa applicants and sponsoring 

organizations met program requirements. We reviewed the relevant law 

and related legislative history, the INS regulations, State's Foreign Affairs 

Manual, advisory cables to the overseas posts, and other guidance to 

determine what criteria the agencies use to judge petitions and 

applications. We observed the process for reviewing and approving visa 

petitions at three INS service centers in California, Texas, and Vermont and 

discussed with service center staff how petitions are evaluated and the 

limitations of the process. We also queried by telephone consular posts in 

India, Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines about their processes and 

procedures for reviewing and approving visa applications. We chose those 

posts because they process relatively large numbers of applications for 

nonimmigrant religious worker visas.

To identify any steps INS and State had taken or planned to take to address 

identified problems, we met with INS and State officials. We discussed the 

potential effect of any proposed changes with representatives of the U.S. 

Catholic Conference, the General Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist 

Church, the Christian Science Church, Agudath Israel of America, and the 

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. We selected these 

organizations because they have testified in support of the special visa for 

religious workers or are otherwise considered knowledgeable about the 

program. We also discussed the proposed changes with churches and 

other religious institutions that use the program. We selected these 

organizations by extracting information from the California and Vermont 

Service Centers' databases of religious worker visa petitions approved in 

fiscal year 1997 to identify the churches using the program. We selected an 

illustrative sample of large, medium, and small users based on the number 

of each organization's approved petitions. We interviewed representatives 

of seven churches from this group.
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We conducted our review from February 1998 to November 1998 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional 

committees. We are also sending copies to the Honorable Madeleine 

Albright, Secretary of State, and the Honorable Doris Meissner, 

Commissioner, INS. We will also make copies available to others upon 

request.

Please contact me at (202) 512-4128 if you or any of your staff have any 

questions concerning this report. The major contributors to this report are 

listed in appendix II.

Benjamin F. Nelson, Director

International Relations and Trade Issues 
Page 14 GAO/NSIAD-99-67 Visa Issuance

Contents

Letter 1

Appendix I

Religious Worker 

Visas—Numbers 

Issued and Recipients' 

Countries of Origin

 16

Appendix II

Major Contributors to 

This Report

 18

Figures Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Religious Worker Visas Issued

Since Fiscal Year 1992 16

Major Countries of Origin for Immigrant and Nonimmigrant

Religious Worker Visa Recipients in Fiscal Year 1998 17

Abbreviations

INS Immigration and Naturalization Service
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Page 16 GAO/NSIAD-99-67 Visa Issuance

Appendix I

Religious Worker Visas—Numbers Issued and 

Recipients' Countries of Origin ApIexndi

This appendix shows the number of religious worker visas issued from 

fiscal years 1992 to 1998 and the major countries of origin of visa recipients 

in fiscal year 1998. Figure I.1 shows that the number of immigrant religious 

worker visas issued since fiscal year 1992 has fluctuated, reaching the 

annual limit of 5,000 in fiscal years 1994 and 1997, when the program was 

scheduled to expire. Meanwhile, issuances of nonimmigrant visas have 

steadily increased since fiscal year 1992. Figure I.2 shows that South Korea 

and India were the top countries of origin of immigrant and nonimmigrant 

religious worker visas, respectively. 

Figure I.1: Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Religious Worker Visas Issued Since Fiscal Year 1992 

Source: State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs.

 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

755

2,715

5,000

2,423

4,046

5,000

4,478

2,154

3,214

4,291

4,907

5,511

6,373

6,664

Fiscal year

Visas 

Immigrant visas Nonimmigrant visas
Appendix I

Religious Worker Visas—Numbers Issued and 

Recipients' Countries of Origin

Page 17 GAO/NSIAD-99-67 Visa Issuance

Figure I.2: Major Countries of Origin for Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Religious Worker Visa Recipients in Fiscal Year 1998 g

Source: State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Mexico

Immigrant visas

Nonimmigrant visas

257

618

South Korea

993

India

267

788

Great Britain

and

Northern Ireland

328

Poland

227

293

Philippines

254

200
Page 18 GAO/NSIAD-99-67 Visa Issuance

Appendix II

Major Contributors to This Report ApIexndi

National Security and 

International Affairs 

Division, Washington, 

D.C.

Diana M. Glod

Andrew D. Crawford

La Verne G. Tharpes

Office of the General 

Counsel, Washington, 

D.C.

Richard Seldin

(711322)
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