II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 775 

To streamline the R–1 religious worker visa petition process. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 30, 2017 

Mr. HATCH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To streamline the R–1 religious worker visa petition process. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Religious Worker Visa 

5 Improvement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. R–1 RELIGIOUS WORKER VISA PETITIONS. 

7 Section 214 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 

8 (8 U.S.C. 1184) is amended by adding at the end the fol9 lowing: 

10 ‘‘(s) VISAS OF NONIMMIGRANTS DESCRIBED IN SEC11 TION 101(a)(15)(R).— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para2 graph (2), a consular officer may not issue a visa 

3 and the Secretary of Homeland Security may not 

4 grant status to any alien under section 

5 101(a)(15)(R) until the Secretary has approved a 

6 petition filed on behalf of such alien. 

7 ‘‘(2) BLANKET PETITION AUTHORIZED.—Not8 withstanding paragraph (1), a petitioner who has 

9 satisfied the requirements under paragraph (3) may 

10 file a blanket petition, in lieu of individual petitions, 

11 on behalf of aliens who meet the eligibility require12 ments under paragraph (4). 

13 ‘‘(3) PETITIONER REQUIREMENTS.—A peti14 tioner satisfies the requirements under this para15 graph if— 

16 ‘‘(A) the petitioner has an established pro17 gram for temporary, uncompensated missionary 

18 work in the United States that is part of a 

19 broader international missionary work program; 

20 ‘‘(B) participation in the missionary work 

21 described in subparagraph (A) is an established 

22 element of religious development in the peti23 tioner’s religious denomination; 


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1 ‘‘(C) the petitioner provides formal train2 ing to its missionaries that is incidental to their 

3 missionary service; 

4 ‘‘(D) the petitioner has established a finan5 cial support system that reasonably ensures 

6 that its missionaries will not become public 

7 charges during their missionary service; and 

8 ‘‘(E) at least 1,000 individual petitions for 

9 nonimmigrant religious workers previously filed 

10 by the petitioner under section 101(a)(15)(R) 

11 have been approved by the Secretary of Home12 land Security. 

13 ‘‘(4) ELIGIBILITY FOR INCLUSION IN BLANKET

14 PETITION.—An alien meets the requirements under 

15 this paragraph if the alien— 

16 ‘‘(A) is described in section 101(a)(15)(R); 

17 ‘‘(B) has been accepted into a missionary 

18 program described in paragraph (3)(A); and 

19 ‘‘(C) will perform missionary work at a lo20 cation listed in the blanket-petition approval no21 tice. 

22 ‘‘(5) LIMITATION.— 

23 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of 

24 Homeland Security may only include, in its ap25 proval of a blanket petition, locations of misVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:10 Apr 05, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S775.IS S775

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1 sionary service for which the Secretary has pre2 viously conducted a site inspection in connection 

3 with an individual petition for a religious work4 er. 

5 ‘‘(B) DEFINED TERM.—In this paragraph, 

6 the term ‘location of missionary service’ means 

7 a specific worksite or a geographic area with 

8 specific boundaries. If the location of mis9 sionary service is a geographical area with spe10 cific boundaries, the location shall include a 

11 head office or facility that can be reasonably 

12 subject to a site inspection. 

13 ‘‘(6) LIST OF AUTHORIZED LOCATIONS OF MIS14 SIONARY SERVICE.— 

15 ‘‘(A) NOTICE.—When the Secretary of 

16 Homeland Security approves a blanket petition 

17 filed under paragraph (2), the Secretary shall 

18 issue a notice to the petitioner containing a list 

19 of the locations of missionary service authorized 

20 under the blanket petition. Such approval shall 

21 remain valid unless revoked by the Secretary of 

22 Homeland Security for good cause shown. 

23 ‘‘(B) AMENDMENT.—A petitioner under 

24 this subsection may file a petition at any time 

25 seeking to amend the list of locations of misVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:10 Apr 05, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S775.IS S775

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1 sionary service that were previously author2 ized.’’. 

Æ 


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