CASE: R-1 Religious Visa Petition
PETITIONER: Christian Church in Ohio
BENEFICIARY: Chinese Director of Music Performance
Our client is an F-1 student from China who is currently pursuing his DMA (Doctor of Music) degree. He contacted our office in October 2013 for his R-1 visa petition.
The R-1 religious worker visa allows ministers and others with a traditional religious occupation or vocation to work in the United States for a maximum five-year stay. By law, the requirements for an R-1 visa petition are the following:
- The R-1 sponsoring organization is a bona fide religious organization with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, either by itself or through a group ruling. If the sponsoring organization was not granted tax-exempt status as a religious organization, it must be affiliated with a religious denomination;
- The R-1 visa applicant must have belonged to the religious denomination of the organization for at least two years;
- The applicant must be coming to work for at least 20 hours a week on average for the petitioner.
Our client’s position is Director of Music Performance. Although he is not a minister, our argument was that he is still eligible to file his R-1 visa petition because his job position falls under the definition of “Religious Occupations.”
According to 8 C.F.R. Section 214.2(r)(2), a religious occupation is an activity which relates to a traditional religious function, e.g., “cantors, liturgical workers, translators, religious broadcasters, workers in religious hospitals, but not if they are performing lay work.” Our client will not perform lay work, and his job duties are more akin to the “cantor” example in the regulations as he is an essential part of the musical department of the petitioner church.
Our client has also belonged in the religious denomination of the organization for more than two years. He has worked as a pianist and church organist for the last two years as well.
After retention, our office prepared his R-1 visa application extensively. We included documents regarding the petitioner church (including IRS Tax exemption letter, denomination determination letter, church’s weekly bulletin and church constitution), employment contract with detailed job descriptions, and documents regarding beneficiary’s qualification.
We filed the R-1 visa petition with various supporting documents on January 22, 2014.
Eventually, our client’s R-1 Visa application was approved on April 4, 2014 without any requests for evidence. Now the Beneficiary can work for the Petitioner on an R-1 visa status until October 2016.