Religious Worker Immigration: In Brief

U.S. immigration law provides for the admission of foreign nationals to work in the United States in religious occupations. A common practice is for foreign religious workers to come to the United States on R-1 nonimmigrant (temporary) visas and subsequently adjust to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status through the EB-4 immigrant classification for “special immigrant religious workers.” The EB-4 category of special immigrants is a hodgepodge of occupations and categories that includes religious workers, foreign diplomats, foreign broadcasters, and special immigrant juveniles, among others. Religious workers within this category are classified as either ministers or non-ministers. Ministers are admitted through permanent statutory provisions, while non-ministers are admitted through statutory provisions that must be reauthorized. The number of R-1 nonimmigrant visas is not numerically limited. The number of EB-4 immigrant visas is limited annually to 9,940. In addition, a per-country ceiling limits the number of persons from a single country who can receive visas or adjust status within each employment-based immigrant visa category—including EB-4 visas—to 7% of total visas available in each category. R-1 visa holders who are sponsored for EB-4 immigrant visas are not permitted to adjust to LPR status until a numerically limited EB-4 visa becomes available. By statute, an R nonimmigrant’s period of stay may not exceed five years. Prior to January 2026, DHS regulations required that foreign nationals wishing to reenter the United States in R-1 status after having resided in the United States for five years in R-1 status had to first spend at least one year outside the United States. Until recently, this five-year period of stay for R-1 nonimmigrants was of sufficient length to permit most religious workers on a nonimmigrant visa to adjust to LPR status through the EB-4 immigrant category despite the latter’s annual limit and per-country ceiling. In 2023, the U.S. Department of State changed its interpretation of how the per-country ceiling should be applied to numerically limited immigrant visas. The net effect was to combine queues of prospective immigrants from different countries that had different waiting periods, resulting in a larger combined queue with a much longer waiting period needed to adjust to LPR status. Since then, many religious workers on R-1 visas have reportedly terminated their employment with U.S. religious institutions and returned to their home countries because their waiting times to adjust to LPR status exceeded the five-year duration of U.S. employment and residence permitted by their nonimmigrant visas. Members of Congress have introduced legislation to address these outcomes of the 2023 policy change. In January 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an interim final rule amending its regulations to eliminate the one-year foreign residency requirement for R-1 nonimmigrants who have reached the statutory five-year maximum period of stay, thus allowing them to be readmitted more quickly for a new five-year period. This policy change is expected to provide employment continuity to all R-1 visa holders and their employers, and administrative relief to R-1 visa holders applying for LPR status.