VZCZCXRO5139
RR RUEHRG
DE RUEHBR #2379/01 3132038
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 092038Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7330
INFO RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 8578
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 3314
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 5837

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 002379 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR CA/VO/F/P, CA/FPP, CA/EX 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS KRFD CMGT BR
SUBJECT: EMBASSY BRASILIA R1 VALIDATION STUDY 
 
 
¶1. Summary: Embassy Brasilia conducted a call-back survey of all 100 
R1 visas issued in the calendar years of 2003, 2004 and 2005. 
Results showed that 73% of individuals who received R1 visas have 
either returned from or are still legally in R1 status in the United 
States; 15% are confirmed fraudulent cases; 2% never traveled; 3% 
have adjusted to Lawful Permanent Resident status and 8% are 
inconclusive.  End Summary. 
 
Definitions 
 
¶2. Post organized results into four categories: 1) Confirmed Return 
or Current Legal Presence in the U.S. for those religious workers we 
managed to contact either directly or through the church and 
determined that they left the U.S. or are still present legally, 
i.e. work for the same church under a valid I-94. 2) Confirmed 
Fraudulent Cases for religious workers who either engaged in 
additional unauthorized employment or completely abandoned their 
churches in the U.S. and have apparently failed to leave the 
country. 3) Never Traveled for the individuals who did not utilize 
their R1 visas. 4) Lawful Permanent Residents for those missionaries 
who have adjusted their status in the U.S.; and 5) Inconclusive for 
those religious workers whose whereabouts we failed to determine. 
 
Data Analysis General Observations 
 
¶3. The fast-growing number of legal and illegal Brazilian immigrants 
in the U.S. evidently requires a steady supply of 
Portuguese-speaking religious workers. The results indicate that 
just as with other types of non-immigrant visas, the socio-economic 
background of the applicant for religious visas can oftentimes serve 
as an indicator of whether or not the individual is likely to abide 
by the visa terms. For instance, we confirmed a 100% return rate 
among young people traveling to the U.S. for two-year missions for 
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Be it the strong 
church support network or the fact that the majority of the 
missionaries were either students at prestigious universities or 
were planning on studying upon completion of the mission, none of 
the R1 applicants from this subgroup overstayed the two years 
indicated on the application form. 
 
¶4. On the other hand, applicants with less established livelihoods, 
often times traveling to the U.S. with their families, tended to 
stay longer than the time specified during the visa interviews.  A 
few of them stated in the phone interviews that they were planning 
on living in the U.S. for an undetermined period of time if the 
church decided to file for permanent resident status for them. 
 
Confirmed Fraudulent Cases Analysis 
 
¶5. 47% of the fraudulent cases were linked to a U.S. citizen pastor 
of Brazilian descent who is believed to have been smuggling aliens 
into the U.S. by means of religious visas. The applicants were 
supposed to be working at Bethel Full Gospel Baptist Church, 
Abundant Life Ministry or Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church (all 
in Jacksonville or Miami, Florida). However, during telephone 
interviews with the church administration it became evident that 
none of the R1 visa holders were associated with the churches and 
their whereabouts in the U.S. were unknown. 
 
¶6. 40% of the detected fraudulent R1 visa holders either never 
worked at the church that petitioned for them or left the 
organization shortly after arriving in the U.S. 
 
¶7. 13% of fraudulent R1s are still associated with the church. 
However we confirmed that these religious workers are performing 
unauthorized employment in the U.S., i.e. they are most likely not 
full-time religious workers and are working illegally in other 
jobs. 
 
¶8. Although only 24% of all successful R1 applicants in 2003, 2004 
and 2005 were from the Brazilian state of Goias, residents of Goias 
comprised 80% of the fraudulent cases. 
 
Universal Church 
 
¶9. Over the course of 2003, 2004 and 2005, Embassy Brasilia issued 
several R1 visas to members of the Universal Church, a rapidly 
growing Brazilian religious organization, founded in 1977 and 
boasting up to 10 million members worldwide. Expanding the 
organization to countries outside of Brazil is one of the Church's 
top priorities.  In the United States alone the organization has 135 
churches and more than 190 pastors. Most services conducted by the 
Universal Church in the U.S. are in Portuguese or Spanish and cater 
towards immigrants from Brazil and other South American countries. 
Initially, we found it impossible to locate any of the visa holders 
as the contact information provided on the application forms DS-156 
and DS-157 was incomplete or had changed. However, at the time of 
the study we happened to receive R1 visa applications from several 
church members planning on traveling to the U.S., which gave the 
 
BRASILIA 00002379  002 OF 002 
 
 
Consulate an opportunity to obtain contact details of the 
individuals who we issued visas to in 2003 and 2004. During 
subsequent telephone interviews, several interesting details 
emerged. First, although at the time of the visa interview all 
Universal Church missionaries indicated they were only planning on 
staying in the U.S. for one year, none of them has left the country 
and all were still employed by the church in 2006. Secondly, 
although R-1 holders for Universal Church spoke very little English, 
everyone we spoke to had a correct understanding of U.S. immigration 
laws regarding religious visas, such as the allowed period of stay, 
when and how the extension needed to be filed and when the church, 
if still requiring their services, would petition for their 
permanent residence in the U.S. All of the above suggests that the 
Universal Church operations are extremely well organized and provide 
assistance to its members at all stages of the visa application 
process. 
 
Evangelical Churches 
 
¶10. Between 2003 and 2005 Embassy Brasilia issued 16 visas to 
religious workers going to evangelical churches in the U.S., namely 
Assembly of God, Abundant Life Evangelical Community and 
Heal-Our-Land Ministries. The survey revealed that none of the R1 
visa holders in this category returned to Brazil, 38% are still in 
the U.S. working for the churches that petitioned for them, 31% are 
confirmed fraudulent cases, 12% have applied for Lawful Permanent 
Status and 19% are inconclusive. 
 
¶11. Post discovered that there are a large number of evangelical 
churches associated with Assembly of God. However, there is no 
central database of alien pastors working for the churches. 
Frequently, it was impossible to establish the whereabouts of the 
missionaries, and church staff were reticent to provide 
information. 
 
Methodology 
 
¶12. Utilizing the AdHoc software reporting tool, we first generated 
a list of all R1 visa holders who were issued visas by the Embassy 
in 2003-2005. We then contacted each and every individual by phone 
or spoke to the church in the United States where the applicants 
were planning to work. 
 
Conclusion 
 
¶13. While we are pleased with the results of the study, we managed 
to identify several areas that need improvement. The large number of 
fraudulent cases indicated that more research on the inviting church 
in the U.S. is required. Post is advising prescreeners to improve 
data entry because incomplete data seriously slowed down the 
callback survey and was frequently associated with fraudulent cases. 
Post recommends that Conoffs request additional information from the 
applicants and/or religious organizations in the U.S., such as tax 
and financial documents and payment information to check whether the 
host churches are actually able to take on an alien pastor or 
religious worker and whether the church exists on more than just 
paper. 
 
¶14. It is often complicated to establish the validity of an 
employment offer for religious workers. Therefore, Post would 
benefit from closer cooperation and a greater exchange of 
information with DHS in the United States. For instance, a USCIS 
representative at a recent mission-wide Fraud Prevention Conference 
in September 2006 clearly was tuned into the problems of R-1 visa 
application from Brazil; now we need to create robust mechanisms 
(perhaps a centrally-located database) to share information with 
DHS. 
 
Sobel