The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has stricken a limitation imposed by the government in the process of applying for a “special immigrant religious worker” visa. It has overturned the requirement that the worker must have been involved in at least two years of work either abroad or “in lawful immigration status” in the United States immediately prior to applying for the visa. Reviewing the legislative history and other provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Court said that the additional requirement to have worked “in lawful immigration status” imposed by the Citizenship and Immigration Service is not consistent with the Act. (The ruling is consistent with a federal...