On November 26, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published its final regulation for Special Immigrant and nonimmigrant religious workers (R-1) visa categories. The new rules have been specifically designed to detect and deter fraud in these visa systems. The R-1 Visa category had become a hot bed of fraud owing to lax [...]

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have proposed changes to the existing rules of the Religious Worker Visa category. The new rules are focused on mainly two things; first, to remove any opportunity for fraud and second, to streamline the program. Why USCIS is changing the current rules? The Religious Visa category has been under the [...]

R-1 is a nonimmigrant visa issued to foreign nationals in religious occupations who perform the duties of a religious worker in the United States. Currently, there are no quotas imposed on R-1 visas and their processing takes three to ten weeks. In order to qualify, the individual must have maintained a membership in a recognized [...]