Immigration Newsletter: Status - Religious Workers

United States law allows ministers to immigrate to the U.S. as members of an employment-based fourth preference category. Until 2003, aliens performing many different types of religious work were also eligible for this immigration category. Examples of occupations that qualified as religious workers before October 1, 2003, were nuns, priests, religious instructors, catechists, and religious hospital workers.

Who Is Eligible?
Before the recent change in the law, three types of religious workers could apply to immigrate to the U.S.: (1) ministers; (2) professional religious workers; and (3) workers in other religious vocations or occupations. Ministers, the only remaining group eligible for this category of immigration, must be ordained by their religious denominations to perform clergy duties and to conduct worship. The U.S. organization for which they intend to work must need and request their services, and the sole purpose of their immigration must be ministerial in nature. Additionally, applicants must have served continuously as ministers for at least two years before applying for admission to the U.S. Although lay preachers without religious training or ordination do not qualify as ministers, deacons ordained to perform ministerial duties, ordained Catholic priests who only teach or study, and commissioned Salvation Army officers, for example, do qualify.

The second category of religious workers that could apply for immigration under the prior law was religious professionals, which included only those vocations or occupations that required baccalaureate-level degrees. The third category, designed for other religious workers, applied to those performing traditional religious functions and those called to religious lives. This category included religious instructors, workers in religious hospitals, missionaries, nuns, and monks.

What Are The Base Requirements For Religious Worker Immigration?
The base qualifications for applicants before the recent statutory change were the same as those that ministers must still meet under the current law. These requirements relate to the nature of the alien's religious denomination and its U.S. affiliate organization and the length of time for which the alien has been a member of the denomination.

First, the applicant is required to be a member of a religious denomination. For the purpose of immigration, a denomination includes groups of believers with a statement of faith and a doctrinal code, an ecclesiastical government, a form of worship and religious services, and established places of worship. Second, the denomination is required to have a U.S. nonprofit religious organization, meaning that the organization has qualified or could qualify for tax-exempt status under U.S. tax law. Third, as discussed above, the applicant is required to have been a member of the denomination carrying on his or her religious work for at least two years before applying for admission to the country.

How Do I Apply For Religious Worker Special Immigrant Status?
To be considered for special immigrant status as a religious worker, an alien or his or her representative must file a petition. The petition, whether for a minister or another type of religious worker under the prior law, must be filed in the district of the alien's proposed employment. Petitions for religious workers other than ministers were required to be filed before October 1, 2003. Practically, however, such petitions would have to have been filed much earlier to allow for approval and entry by the October 1 statutory deadline.

In addition to the petition, an alien is required to present proof of eligibility. For any type of worker, this might include documentation establishing the nonprofit nature of the organization and the affiliation between the U.S. organization and the applicant's denomination. Ministers are additionally required to demonstrate the need for their services and the organization's ability to pay, the purpose of entry to the U.S., proof of ordination, and proof of any of the other eligibility requirements warranting special immigrant status.

Similarly, other religious workers were required to establish that they were eligible for special immigrant status. Supporting evidence might have included a letter from an official of the organization that established that a baccalaureate-level degree was received and that the degree was required to work in the alien's profession or that the alien was qualified to do work relating to a traditional religious function. Such a letter might also have been required to show how the alien would be paid, and documentation relating to the organization's formation and assets may have been required.

Do My Family Members Receive Derivative Status?
The spouse and unmarried, minor children of approved religious worker special immigrants are granted derivative status, so they need not establish separate eligibility.