This article is written for a South Asian publication that will be printed soon.
New R-1 visa application requirements as per November 26, 2008 rules
Religious visas have been a particularly useful visa for our Indian Subcontinent community in recent years. Pundits, gurus, priests and imams- all have been able to immigrate to the United States and help us strengthen our faiths, teach our children our religion and instill the values with which we were raised.
Up until November 26, 2008, it was relatively simple getting an R-1 religious worker visa if you were able to meet all the requirements. An application could be filed with the embassy abroad, and if you were able to provide all the evidence required (which, considering what I am about to tell you, was not that onerous), a visa would be forthcoming.
Unfortunately, the relative simplicity of the application process opened the system up to much fraud. Upon investigation, the United States Immigration and Citizenship Service found that many religious organizations did not even exist, yet applications were filed and visas were issued.
As a result, the USCIS revised the regulations and have modified the rules significantly. Under the new rules, all R-1 visa applications must be approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services first. Consular and Port of Entry petitions are no longer permissible. As of November 26, 2008, all religious worker petitions must be filed under the new rules.
Under the new rules, all applications for R-1 must now be made on Form I-129 and filed in the United States. In addition, the petitioning employer must file an ‘attestation’ confirming various details of the organization. For example, the employer must attest that the organization is a bona fide tax exempt religious organization; the number of employees of the organization, how many religious petitions were filed in the past and the number of current employees on R-1 visas, that the applicant has worked in the last two years as a priest, and has at least two years of experience, the title, duties and compensation of the position etc.
The evidentiary requirement is made more onerous in the rules. The government wants to eliminate all scope of fraud and is essentially looking for as much information as possible regarding both the employer and the potential employee. Therefore, the government will be looking for long list of “verifiable evidence.” In other words, proof will be required of almost everything.
As the rules are so very new, it is hard to predict how the government will handle such petitions, save to say that higher scrutiny is a given. If you are planning on applying for such a visa, whether for yourself or on behalf of your organization, please be aware that it can take much longer than it used to. I suggest that as much evidence as possible is filed at the initial stage, so as to reduce the possibility of a request for further evidence. Only time will tell how many R-1 visas will be issued in the coming months.