WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government is inspecting churches and religious groups to clamp down on fraud in a visa program for religious workers, government officials said Thursday. The visits are part of an effort by Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to tighten rules for the religious worker visas after finding fraud in about 33 percent of applications.| How many for the mosque in Arizona? |
Every religious organization that files visa applications for its workers will be visited before the application is approved. They may not get a second visit if they seek a visa for a second worker, but could be contacted by phone, said Janis Sposato, an associate director of CIS who led the fraud review.
The review uncovered churches that did not exist and applications filed falsely under the name of a legitimate church that did not petition for the worker, Sposato said. "This is an ongoing program. There is no start date. We are doing the site visits," Sposato said.
Costs for the federal inspection would be absorbed in fee increases proposed by Citizenship and Immigration Services. Eventually, federal contractors would do the inspections, she said. The proposed rule changes come 20 months after the agency reviewed the religious worker visa program and found the 33 percent fraud rate, officials said Thursday.
Sposato refused to say whether the review uncovered any terrorism suspects or someone who might cause harm in the country.