USA Green Card Immigration Blog

Click on the article link above to read about this ridiculous case involving a Buddhist monk who’s “employment” at a California temple has triggered the wrath of the US government, which “wants to deport the 47-year-old monk, after denying him permanent U.S. residency, or a green card, on the grounds that he was employed without authorization after his temporary religious visa lapsed.”

The monk is fighting in immigration court to remain in the United States.  He is accused of having been “employed” by a Buddhist temple in California, even though his services were uncompensated.  He has taken an oath of poverty, and his “work” consists of spreading a message of peace and compassion!

“The monk’s saga illustrates how an increasingly backlogged and cautious immigration system can trip up some applicants striving to obey the law. In a post-9/11 world, immigration agencies, which have discovered rampant fraud with religious visas, try to strike a balance between screening out security threats and permitting legitimate religious workers.”

“The State Department issued 13,002 R-1 visas in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008. However, the U.S. government has tightened oversight of the program in recent years. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, concern grew that the visas could be misused by terrorists or radical groups. Then in late 2005, a fraud-detection unit of the Department of Homeland Security found that a third of all immigrant religious visas had been granted on the basis of fraudulent information.”