Note: our situation has many details and nuances. Below is the short version. If you want more details, feel free to read in the appendix and the footnotes numbered (1), (2), (3), and (4) for the fine details.
We have been serving in the U.S. under a Religious visa (R visa), which allows you to be in the country for 5 years (1). Our time is almost up, and our R visa is expiring on July 1st, 2025.
The original plan was to apply for permanent residency (Green Card), and we did in July 2024, hoping to get permanent residency before our R visa expired. The bad news is that the estimated wait for us to obtain a Green Card is 3.5 to 6 years (2).
As we were studying different options to stay in the ministry, what we believed to be God’s miracle happened. On April 7, 2025, a bill was introduced in Congress (3) that will allow individuals with an R visa who are in the process of obtaining a Green Card to renew their religious visa every 3 years until the Green Card process is completed. The bill is so specific to our situation that some people are referring to it as the Munguia bill!
First family picture at Camp, Jan 17, 2021
What happens if the bill does not pass before July 1st?
We are allowed to request a small extension on our R visa to reclaim the days we were outside the US (We were unable to enter the country right away, and we went to Mexico for a couple of weeks). We are filing the extension in the next few days, and this should move our departure date from July 1st 2025, to February 7, 2026.
What happens if the bill does not pass before February 7?
We are working with our lawyer and the Board of Living Waters on Plan B, which involves me enrolling in a local University to transition to a student visa (F visa) while we wait for either the bill to pass or the Green Card to be processed.
- The advantage of this plan B is that we can stay in the US, and Laura and the kids can continue to be involved in the ministry of the Camp, AWANA, and the local church as usual.
- The disadvantage is that I need to travel to school and actually be a student. Additionally, there are added costs for tuition, books, and transportation.
This will change my involvement at the camp from full-time Executive Director to part-time volunteer, which is not ideal for the ministry. Dennis Siler will have to function as interim Executive Director while the situation gets resolved. Due to the disadvantages of plan B, we will commit to plan B for only a year and then evaluate if this is the right course of action.
First day of work at Camp
How can you pray for us?
We are trusting God. He miraculously brought us to the ministry, and if he wants us here, he will make it happen. We felt God had already said, “I am taking care of you,” by moving lawyers and congress members to propose a bill specific to our situation!
Specific items to pray for
- For the bill to pass before February 7, 2026
- For the Green Card process to move forward faster. (4)
We want to stay in this ministry and feel God wants us to stay. But God could be leading us to move to a new ministry. Specific items to pray for:
- For our family to continue to have peace in this matter.
- For the Munguia family to find a suitable ministry if God leads to transition out of Living Waters.
Feel free to contact me (ivan@lwbc.org) if you have questions.
Ivan Munguia
The Munguia Family doing ministry through the TST program
Appendix
Is there any way I can help?
You can advocate for the bill by contacting your congressional representatives on this matter. I want to be upfront, the bill applies to all religions in the US, not just Christians. If you feel comfortable advocating for this bill, you can find your senator here, and your congressman here. Here are some sample letters you can send or email to them.
Another way to help is financially. Immigration fees, legal fees, plan B fees (tuition, books and transportation) could rapidly grow. If you feel led to help financially, here is a link to make a donation to Camp to the “Ministry of Ivan Munguia”. You can also mail your donation to Camp.
What happens if the bill gets denied?
If the bill gets denied, then we will have to go back to Mexico. Plan C is to request a new R visa. We are required to wait a full year before applying for a new R visa. Adding to the wait time for the application to be processed, we foresee being outside of the country for 1.5 years.
Dennis Siler will have to function as interim Executive Director. This is even less ideal since it will be hard for him to embrace the position with full force: It is hard to continue the vision of a different person, and it is hard to implement a new vision that may not continue, knowing that the effort will end in 1.5 years.
Footnotes
(1) A Religious visa allows you to stay in the country for 2.5 years, with the possibility of one extension for a total of 5 years.
(2) The delay is due to changes in the previous administration, and a high demand for Green Cards for religious workers.
3) The bill, called the Religious Workforce Protection Act (RPWA), it was publicly introduced in both chambers of Congress. House: H.R. 2672 and Senate: S. 1298
(4) Getting a Green Card has 4 steps:
- You submit a petition (Form I-360): This means you are formally expressing your intention to request Permanent Residency (i.e. Green Card), and the reasons why you believe you are eligible
- The petition gets approved: This means that the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) has reviewed your case and acknowledges you are indeed eligible for permanent residency.
- You apply for permanent residency (Form I-485): This means you are officially requesting permanent residency
- Processing times range from 1 to 3 years, but you are allowed to stay in the US while the I-485 gets processed!
- Your Green Card gets granted: This means the USCIS has processed your request and given you permanent residency.
We Completed Step 1 on 07/25/2024. This date is relevant, and even has a name; it is referred to as the Priority Date. We just received a letter from the USCIS acknowledging that we are eligible for permanent residency, so step 2 has been completed! We believe this is God letting us know that he is in control. Even in the midst of uncertainty, God encouraged us with the good news that our paperwork is all good and that we are one step closer.
Due to the USCIS backlog, as of today, we have an approximate wait time of 3.5 years before we are able to start step 3. The way this works is that the USCIS releases a monthly bulletin informing applicants what priority date is now allowed to move to Step 3. In the past 10 months, the priority day announced by USCIS is still 02/01/2021 (3 years and 5 months from our priority date). This is very, very odd; usually, the priority date moves, but this year is stuck in the same date. According to our lawyer, each year (around October) Congress approves a certain number of Green cards, and asks USCIS to start processing them until they run out. It seems that Congress did not approve any Green Cards this past October, and hence, the line is not moving. So basically, by Congress not approving any Green Cards, ALL people requesting one have automatically been delayed 1 year.