Greg Westra

And, we are thankful that Pete's been able to find ways to serve the church of Christ while we all wait....

I'm on the "other side" of the equation - the president of the council for the church Pete's planning to serve. This has been a learning experience for all of us. One thing that we did not expect or understand was that the US church is responsible for as much or more paperwork in the process as the Canadian pastor. And, the church's paperwork is what's taking the time for approval. We filed around 40 pages for our application. From the church's perspective (and with a loud disclaimer that this is not offered as advice to anyone nor is it a complete summary) -  The church, as the prospective employer of a "non-immigrant worker" (i.e. someone who's coming here to work for a defined period of time, and not planning to immigrate permanently to the US) is responsible for "petitioning" the US Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS) for the R-1 Visa. In USCIS lingo, the church is the 'petitioner', and the pastor who's going to work at the church is the 'beneficiary'.  Once the petition is approved, the petitioner receives a form indicating approval. The pastor (with that form in hand) can then cross the border "in R-1 status". The US law penalizes the "employer" (i.e. the church) if it compensates someone for services rendered in the US who's not a citizen and doesn't have the proper status.  The petitioner (the church) must document to USCIS's satisfaction the following (and this is not all-inclusive):  - We really ARE a church and / or a religious tax-exempt (501c-3) organization- We have the funds needed to pay the pastor's salary.- The pastor will earn enough to secure and / or will be provided with food, shelter, etc.- We have an agreement with the pastor about what the duties are for the time spent here.- The work the pastor does is indeed religious in nature.- There's an 'end date' established for the work to be done here (it's a temporary arrangement)  The R-1 visa is associated with a particular job at a particular employer - so even if a non-US citizen had one for working at Church A, Church B will have to complete a petition for the same pastor to work there.  It's entirely possible that a "site visit" will occur - someone from a USCIS field office would visit the church, and possibly interview the current employees, to ascertain whether our petition is accurate and truthful. That hasn't happened yet in our case, and it's impossible to determine whether or not one will be scheduled until we have an approved petition or we have a site visit.  And - what adds to the confusion in this particular case - The US declares Canada to be a "visa-exempt" nation. Many people are aware of this - if you visit the US from Canada for an extended vacation for example, you don't need to get a visa first, (as you would if you were going to visit the US from many other nations). So, the physical visa is not required. However, we must still have the petition approved, and the approval document in the pastor's hand, as if there were a requirement for an actual visa.