All About R-1 Religious Worker Visa

Michael Wildes Reviews
2 min readNov 14, 2017

There are two ways to enter the United States of America. One is by obtaining an immigrant visa or via non-immigrant visa for a temporary stay. The R-1 visa is a non-immigrant temporary visa that allows religious workers to work in the U.S.

The organization or the Institute on the basis of which an individual is going to apply for the R-1 visa must be registered as a non-profitable organization in the US.

Eligibility criteria-

  • You must be a registered member of a religious organization which is approved as an actual and real nonprofit religious foundations in the U.S.
  • The religious group and its subsidiary must be either excluded from tax or eligible for tax-exempt status.
  • You must be-
  • a part of your group for the more than 2 years immediately preceding your petition for religious worker status.
  • planning to work as a delegate of your group, or in a religious occupation for a bona fide, nonprofit religious organization.
  • the R-1 visa is given for 5 years, after that, you must have to leave the US. But in between, you can apply for green card status or permanent residence.

How to Apply?

There are many ways to apply for a visa under the R-1 non-immigrant visa. The ways may vary at the Embassy or the Consulate where you apply. Before applying, it is recommended that you must consult the instructions given on the official website of the embassy. Below are the steps that you have to follow-

  • First and the most important step is to fill the Form DS-160. It is an online non-immigrant visa application. Before filling you must go through each and every point and requirement.
  • Complete the whole visa application and fill the accurate personal information.
  • After submitting it, print the application form. It is necessary because it is needed at the time of interview.
  • For completing the online Form DS-160, a recent photo is required by the Embassy that must be according to the instructions given on the application form.

Schedule an Interview-

You must schedule an appointment for your visa interview. It is generally scheduled at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in your hometown. The wait time for an interview varies by location, visa type and season.

So, it is recommended that you must apply your visa application early. After the visa interview, further administrative processing is required. About your application processing, your lawyer will inform you in case there is any other update required.

If you are trying to immigrate to the US on the basis of R-1 visa and looking for an expert lawyer, do visit: Michael Wildes Reviews and check out the reviews and experience of other clients with the lawyer.

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Michael Wildes Reviews

Michael Wildes known for handling so many cases successfully in New York and he is senior partner at highly prestigious law firm Wildes and Weinberg.