IMMIGRATION: Jain temple construction stopped by new visa rules

We posted an item in May about how new visa rules might make it difficult for foreign religious workers to obtain visas, especially if they're from non-Western faiths ("New policies may affect temple builders, other religious workers"). That's apparently starting to happen now. The Chicago Tribune has an interesting piece, by reporter Russell Working, on how construction of a new Jain temple has been delayed by at least a year because 5 craftsmen from India can't get visas (via HPI). They applied for them last September.

Nationwide, Eastern religions are struggling to import workers they regard as essential to the practice of their faith but who do not fit traditional categories under which religious organizations obtain visas. In some cases, like the Bartlett Jains, temples try to bring in workers with special skills as well as deep familiarity with their sacred iconography. Masons must know how to fit 441,000 pounds of stone together without any steel binding and be able to accurately rechisel details of carvings damaged in shipping, said Vinod Patel, whose Austin, Texas, construction firm is overseeing the stonework in Bartlett.

The delay has donors fretting, and has cost the Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago (which is what the temple is called) over $26,000 in legal and consulting fees. The mixup happened in part because one of the craftsmen was being interviewed at the U.S. embassy and was asked where he was going. He accidentally said Austin, because he's been in touch with Texas-based Vinod Patel, and the official got suspicious, since that answer didn't match the paperwork.

The article also cites construction delays at the Hindu Monastery in Kauai, where Hinduism Today is published (and HPI). Six temple stonemasons were denied visas.

Ishani Chowdhury, the executive director of the Hindu American Foundation is also quoted, and points to a double standard in the new visa rules that works against those from Eastern faiths.

The new regulations, which some embassies already have applied, list categories of workers in terms better suited to Judeo-Christian practice, Chowdhury said. Cantors, missionaries and even ritual slaughter supervisors can enter the U.S. under the R-1 religious visa category. But stonemasons—essential in faiths whose rituals center around carved images of the gods—are not on the list. U.S. officials revised the system because they were seeking to eliminate fraud, said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan. The stonemasons would have to apply under a category that includes hotel workers and seasonal laborers.