R Visa

Release Date 

08/30/2022

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to reorganize and expand on existing guidance related to special immigrant and nonimmigrant religious workers.

This update reorganizes the special immigrant religious worker guidance for clarity and provides more comprehensive information about the special immigrant religious worker filing process, verification of evidence, and the site-inspection process.

 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) advises the public that Public Law 112-176, signed by the President on Sept. 28, 2012, extends the following USCIS programs until Sept. 30, 2015:

• E-Verify
• Immigrant Investor (EB-5) Pilot Program
• Special immigrant visa category for non-minister special immigrant religious workers
• The date by which J-1 nonimmigrant exchange visitors must obtain that status in order to qualify for the Conrad 30 program.

Program Details

This memorandum provides instruction to Immigration Service Officers who adjudicate R-1 nonimmigrant petitions for aliens who are coming to the United States temporarily to perform religious work, and their dependents. This memorandum outlines the procedure to be used for recapturing time spent outside the United States by R-1 nonimmigrants when seeking an extension of their R nonimmigrant status.

Please check the attachment to read memo.

USCIS notes from the stakeholder meeting on religious workers, providing an outline of changes resulting from the Religious Worker Final Rule that was published on 11/26/08.

Please check the attachment.

Filing location for concurrently-filed I-140/I-485 petitions 

Unless there is an accompanying I-907 all I-140/485 concurrent filings must be filed at the lockbox addresses. Depending on the jurisdiction the filing must be sent directly to TSC or NSC.

Employers who are cap-exempt under INA § 214(g)(5)(A) or (g)(5)(B) filing H-1B petitions 

[Federal Register: October 6, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 192)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 51236-51237]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr06oc09-4]

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

22 CFR Part 41

[Public Notice: 6779]

Visas: Documentation of Nonimmigrants Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, as Amended; Requirements for Aliens in Religious Occupations

AGENCY: State Department.

ACTION: Final rule.