{"id":129672,"date":"2026-01-20T00:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/129672\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T00:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:09:07","slug":"north-texas-pastor-who-self-deported-could-return-to-u-s-sooner-than-thought-after-change-in-visa-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/129672\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texas pastor who self-deported could return to U.S. sooner than thought after change in visa policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gordon pastor who was forced to self-deport<\/a> with his family last year because of an immigration policy will be returning a lot sooner than expected, thanks to an about-face in that policy.<\/p>\n

Pastor Albert Oliveira said that prayers were definitely answered for him and for thousands of foreign-born religious workers who are caught up in a visa backlog. <\/p>\n

Oliveira has been back in his home country of Brazil since November, but says thanks to this new rule change, he could be back in Gordon in about a month and a half.<\/p>\n

Immigration rule change speeds return for religious workers <\/p>\n

Oliveira’s R-1 visa, which allowed him and his young family to be in the U.S. as a religious worker, was expiring, and he had to leave the country for a year before re-applying.<\/p>\n

Now, the change in rule for the thousands of R-1 visa holders like him makes it so they can immediately reapply for a new visa after leaving the U.S., instead of having to wait 12 months out of the country to do so.<\/p>\n

It was the news Oliveira had been hoping and praying for.<\/p>\n

“It was a roller coaster of emotions, but in a good way,” he said of learning the change in policy. “It was a burst of emotions towards… now we have a direction, now we know what to do. Now we can start making plans.”<\/p>\n

His current plan is to send an application package to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).<\/p>\n

They’ll set up an interview with embassy officials in Brazil, where final permission would be given for him and his family to return.<\/p>\n

Pastor hopes to reunite with church by Easter \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I know it sounds clich\u00e9, it’s the answer every pastor is going to give, but man, I really miss my church,” Oliveira said. “I am looking forward to being back by Easter so that I can celebrate Easter with my church.”<\/p>\n

Immigration policy changes in the U.S. lately have been swift, and this is one that immigration attorney Paul Hunker says is favorable to religious workers from abroad.<\/p>\n

“We have a shortage of priests in the Dallas diocese, for example, and to make that priest stay out of the country for a year before they can come back doesn’t make sense,” said Hunker. “I think whoever talked to the Trump administration convinced them of that.”<\/p>\n

“For those that are part of this justice being done, for religious workers, for churches, for communities around, it goes a big thank you,” Oliveira said.<\/p>\n

Oliveira said he has been offering pastoral services and sermons via video conferencing from Brazil to his church in Gordon.<\/p>\n

But, if all goes well for him, he hopes to be able to do it in person again sometime in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gordon pastor who was forced to self-deport with his family last year because of an immigration policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11138,1724,430,1968,27,29,28,1153,6956],"class_list":{"0":"post-129672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-immigration","10":"tag-north-texas","11":"tag-religion","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-trump-administration","16":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}