OCI NAD Convention 2022: Mission Revival

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Outpost Centers International

Svetlana Scherba

Legal Challenges Facing Supporting Ministries

I have only 90 minutes to present my presentation, therefore I am going to give just the highlights of the most challenging issues and just highlight the key elements for you.

A recent research conducted by the National Council of Non-Profits revealed that 91% of non-profit organization surveys reported that it has been extremely difficult or difficult to recruit and retain employees this past year.

Nonprofit work seems to be no longer considered a noble work like in the past.

As a matter of fact, a large number of individuals are coming out of non-profit sector and joining Amazon or Walmart that pay higher employment incentives and require non-specialized training.

How many of you have experienced this workforce shortage?

The top factors affecting nonprofit organizations' ability to recruit or retain staff include lack of applicants.

Eighty-one percent said that positions that used to get 20 applicants now get only 1 or 2 if that.

80% stated that inability to offer a competitive salary is 1 of the factors.

66% reported staff burned out as some staff members leave to work overtime, multiple shifts to compensate for lack of staff in other areas.

And 17% said staff inability to find child care.

And 37% said vaccination policies, among other factors.

Although this solution does not come without risks.

Crazy visa denials have been seen over these past years due to Trump's anti-immigration policies.

Requirements to sponsor, burdensome requirements to sponsor foreign nationals for certain jobs, which includes sponsoring not only individuals for temporary visas, but also for green cards.

In addition, Expensive application fees, the time that it takes for USCIS to process applications may not be feasible for some organizations.

Extensive paperwork or compliance with immigration requirements, limited number of suitable visas.

However, despite all these risks, deploying foreign nationals is an attractive way to find skilled workers or students or missionaries and expand your market.

There are almost over 20 various visa categories out there for people who wish to come to the United States, but this afternoon I'm going to be focusing on 5, primarily 5 visa categories.

B1 visa, FM student visa, R visa, L visa, and H1B visas.

In addition, there is also a visa waiver program which allows citizens of participating countries – there are over 40 participants in the waiver program, to travel to the United States without obtaining a visa for 90 days or less for tourism or business.

Business is defined as consulting with business associates, attending a conference, and short-term training.

In addition, the short-term training is defined as a course of study for less than 18 hours per week, the program, recreational or vocational in nature, the program that is not to award an academic credit.

So if your ministry meets offering an educational course and the course meets the following criteria.

You can always bring foreign nationals on a visa waiver program without even having them obtain a visa.

If your program extends beyond the 90 days or 3 months, what they can do, they can come on a visa waiver program, just spend 3 months here and upon the expiration of their authorized stay in the country, exit the country and try to come back to complete their training.

Pros and cons of a visa waiver, it cannot be changed or it cannot be extended.

Therefore, when an individual comes in a visa waiver, you cannot file for an extension or petition for a change of status for that individual, they have to depart the country after 3 months here.

It is not the way for a green card, court, council.

But however, there is no limit on duration of reentry.

Regulations do not specify how long the person needs to be outside of the country before they can re-enter.

Therefore, like I do, 1 or 2 weeks outside of the country and try to come back.

So let's discuss the first category of visa, which is a B visa.

There are 2 categories of B visa, B1, B2.

B2 visa is another option for ministries that offer short-term training to bring national foreigners to the country to participate in the training.

As the regulation specifically states, individuals whose principal purpose for travel is tourism, but who also plan to engage in a short course of study are properly classified for B2 visa.

This is taken from the Foreign Affairs Manual, Section 9, and this is what it says.

Members of religious denominations, whether ordained or not, entering the United States temporarily for the sole purpose of performing missionary work may be issued B1 visas, provided there are conditions attached, so long as the work does not include the selling of solicitations or acceptance of donations.

So this visa is not for cold-portrait programs.

And the ministers will receive no salary other than reimbursement for expenses incidental to temporary stay.

So like I said, this is another option for ministers to bring missionaries to engage them in your ministry.

In addition, the B1 applicants can come to perform volunteer services on a B1 visa.

It does not require a sponsor or pre-approved USS petition.

All ministries have to do just to write an invitation letter.

And our employment gains full employment or full-time status.

Prohibited activities involve receiving a salary.

However, reimbursement of incidental expenses and per diem is allowed.

It's not a way to a green card, obviously.

However, it allows individuals to stay in the country for up to 2 years.

So like I said, if an individual comes on a visitor's visa, the initial period of admission is 6 months.

Then they can re-enter the country, come back for another 6 months, and then you can file for an extension for them and request 1 year.

So this is the process how to obtain B1 visa.

I'm not going to, the individual just needs to fill out the application online, pay the fees, and just schedule an interview at the embassy in their country, collect the following documents.

Some complain that B1 visa, you know, sometimes they get denied.

The reason for that is that some individuals who would like to come to attend the ministry are too young.

They have no ties to their country, home country.

And also, they don't have financial means, adequate means to support themselves while here.

So this is the process how to obtain a visa extension.

The organization must file Form I-539 and pay appropriate application fee, which is currently $455.

And then the application must be filed before I-94 expiration.

And the petition, the applicant cannot remain in the country for beyond the requested period of time.

Customs and Border Protection to keep track of the arrival and departure of immigrants.

So it is very important to check the I-94 to make sure the person does not overstay their stay here in the country.

So an electronic I-94 form can be retrieved at the following website, if somebody is interested in that.

So you can always retrieve it from there.

The next visa that I'm going to briefly discuss is an MF, a student visa.

Both M and F visas, anonymous visas that allow students to come to engage in full course of study.

The F1 visa is for academic programs like colleges.

The M1 visa is for vocational or technical schools.

The following schools are considered to be academic, college, university, institutional higher education, community college, seminary, conservatory, public high school, private elementary, middle school, and a language institution or school.

The following schools are considered to be vocational or non-academic.

A community college offering vocational technical training.

A vocational high school or school that provides vocational or non-academic training.

So the following schools do not qualify for, you know, to be certified by SEVIS to enroll foreign nationals in homeschool, public elementary or middle school.

So In order to be eligible to enroll for a national school, it must be established.

The process of being able to enroll for a national student visa is a two-step process.

The first step, I'm just giving you a brief overview, enrolls obtaining state authorization if schools haven't done it yet.

It's not accreditation, it's not a licensure, it is a post-secondary educational certification from the Post-Secondary Education Commission.

As by law, state law, all entities interested in operating a post-secondary institution must obtain some type of authorization as a post-secondary institution to be considered legally operating.

So the school needs to file an application with the non-profit post-secondary education commission or 501c3 schools can file a religious exemption application and pay an appropriate fee.

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Legal Challenges Facing Supporting Ministries

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