USCIS New Memo: Qualifying U.S. Work Experience for Special Immigrant Religious Workers

USCIS will now not disqualify religious workers cases based on the fact that the experienced acquired was not on a lawful status. For example a religious worker who obtained experienced while volunteering on a B1/B2 visa or without legal presence.  Note that there might be other reasons for denial.  Nonetheless,  this opens the door to many possibilities for religious workers. We welcome this new policy and invite all those who want to file for an R visa or EB4 to contact our office.

On April 7, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Shalom Pentecostal Church v. Acting Secretary DHS, 783 F.3d 156 (3d Cir. 2015), found the regulatory requirements that qualifying work experience gained in the United States must have been acquired in lawful status (herein “lawful status requirements”) in 8 CFR 204.5(m)(4) and (11) to be beyond the Department’s legal authority (ultra vires). The court found that the statute was clear and unambiguous and that the regulation was inconsistent with the statute. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not seek further review of this decision.

Read New USCIS Memo Based on n Shalom Pentecostal Church v. Acting Secretary DHS