Senate Passes Extension of Religious Worker Visa Program

from HIAS

On August 2nd, the U.S. Senate passed a three-year extension of a program that allows U.S. religious denominations to fill non-clergy religious jobs with qualified workers from abroad. Jewish congregations, particularly in remote areas with small Jewish communities, rely on rabbis, cantors, kosher butchers, Hebrew school teachers, and other foreign workers who come to the U.S. through the Religious Worker Visa Program (RWVP). Without them, many Jewish communities would find it more difficult to sustain the institutions and practices essential to Jewish religious and communal life. This program was enacted in 1990 and is currently set to expire on September 30, 2012. The House still needs to pass the extension in order for it to become law.
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