USCIS advises its customers that Public Law 111-9, signed by President Obama on March 20, 2009, extends the non-minister special immigrant religious worker program through Sept. 29, 2009. The program had expired on March 6, 2009.
The extended category covers special immigrant religious workers in professional or non-professional capacity within a religious vocation or occupation. The extended date also applies to accompanying spouses and children of these non-ministers. Workers entering the United States only to continue the vocation of a religious minister are not affected by the expiration date