GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) - Since the early 2000s, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has invited and sponsored international priests to serve northeast Wisconsin's 156 parishes and communities. This began with a shortage of Priests across the United States due to age and illness. Green Bay Packers and Fleet Farm team up, honoring service members throughout November "We reach out to different bishops in other countries to see if they have priests that they can loan us for a period of 5, maybe 10 years to come and serve in the Diocese of Green Bay," said Deacon Peter Gard, who serves as the Associate to the Vicar of Priests and Pastoral Leaders. "Once we get that approval, we go through a process to obtain what's called an R-1 visa, which is the religious worker's visa." Due to the backlog of adding these cases to the EB-4 category, the "priority date", which allows the filing of the I-485 application and subsequently ability to obtain a religious-based green card, has been significantly affected. International priests and other religious workers serving here in Wisconsin and around the country are now being forced to return home after five years due to a change in statutory interpretation made last year by the U.S. State Department. Fr. Felix Abaño moved to Green Bay from the Philippines almost six years ago but now calls Wisconsin home. "I am so happy because I love doing the work here, being assigned here in the Diocese of Green Bay," said Abaño. "Because of the service of the people, of their support, that makes me confident of doing my job as a priest." New affordable housing development opens in Green Bay, features 48 mixed-income apartments Abaño mainly serves the communities of Niagara at St. Anthony of Padua, Pembine at St. Margaret of Scotland, and Aurora at Sacred Heart of Jesus. He told Local 5's Samantha Petters he is working to renew his green card so he can continue doing what he loves in northeast Wisconsin. "God knows what is best for us, so we are trying to serve here in the Diocese of Green Bay as long as we can," he stated.