Visa to stay at monastery in the U.S as a European?

Discussion of ordination, the Vinaya and monastic life. How and where to ordain? Bhikkhuni ordination etc.
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Goob
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Visa to stay at monastery in the U.S as a European?

Post by Goob »

Does anyone know what the visa rules are for a European to stay long-term at a monastery and possibly later ordain in an American Theravada monastery?

Can the monastery sponsor you in any way or would one have to go on a limited tourist visa?
BKh
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Re: Visa to stay at monastery in the U.S as a European?

Post by BKh »

You really need to talk to the specific monastery. In general it is very, very difficult to get visas for staying in a monastery. And as a general rule monasteries won't sponsor lay people. Even getting visas for monks is difficult. Honestly if you are in the EU you'd be better off trying to find a monastery there.
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confusedlayman
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Re: Visa to stay at monastery in the U.S as a European?

Post by confusedlayman »

Goob wrote: Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:44 am Does anyone know what the visa rules are for a European to stay long-term at a monastery and possibly later ordain in an American Theravada monastery?

Can the monastery sponsor you in any way or would one have to go on a limited tourist visa?
I think europeons can go 3 months without visa?
I may be slow learner but im at least learning...
dharmacorps
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Re: Visa to stay at monastery in the U.S as a European?

Post by dharmacorps »

There are more than a few European monks who have stayed at monasteries here in the US for yeas. I don't know how the process works with immigration etc but it does seem to happen.
BKh
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Re: Visa to stay at monastery in the U.S as a European?

Post by BKh »

dharmacorps wrote: Sun Jul 18, 2021 6:40 pm There are more than a few European monks who have stayed at monasteries here in the US for yeas. I don't know how the process works with immigration etc but it does seem to happen.
Yes, but there are two aspects. One is on the side of the monastery. They can be quite willing to sponsor people who are already monks if they think it would be good for their monastery and they know the monk. However because of the very low likelihood of a stranger that contacts them actually ending up ordaining and continuing at the monastery, there is almost zero chance of sponsoring them for a visa.

The other aspect is on the government side. It's very different for a monastery to request a visa for someone who is already qualified as a monk vs. someone who is simply aspiring to become a monk. I know more about the Canadian visa system, but there are special classes of visas for people who are already trained religious workers. I think the same might be true in the US for the R1 visas. You can think of it as the difference between a trained minister taking a job at a church vs. someone volunteering at a soup kitchen for a year. Since monasteries are not official educational institutions, people couldn't qualify for student visas. They would just be seen as volunteers.

Another factor in the US is the issue of healthcare. It's very messy and unlikely that a monastery would be willing to take on a foreigner without medical coverage.

As someone else said above, Europeans may be able to get a tourist visa. However this is not a long term solution for someone interested in ordaining. And the officer at the border may decided that someone staying at a monastery sounds fishy and turn them away at the airport. It is not at all unheard of, sadly.

I don't say that to discourage anyone, just share the reality of the extreme difficulty involved. A much better strategy would be to seek ordination in a country where there were no visa issues and through that build up international contacts.
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gavesako
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Re: Visa to stay at monastery in the U.S as a European?

Post by gavesako »

Unfortunately, the same applies from the beginning of 2021 (due to Brexit) also for any Europeans wishing to seek ordination in the UK. That leaves only a handful of monasteries on the continent as potential places to start one's monastic training, and these are typically quite full already. Because of the pandemic restrictions it is still very difficult to travel to Asia and try to ordain there. Overall not an easy situation.
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