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What we can do for you?
1. We can help you to apply for R-1 and R-2 visa stamp in your home country
If you are not in the United States now, you may apply for R-1 visa and your family may apply for R-2 visa at the U.S. Embassy or U.S. Consulate in your home country. You must schedule an interview for visa applications at the U.S. Embassy or U.S. Consulate. At the interview, you submit your visa applications and provide support evidence to prove that:
(1) You have a job offer;
(2) The job offer is from an American church or religious organization;
(3) The job duty is in religious nature, such as working as pastor, associate pastor, assistant pastor, music pastor, youth pastor, pianist, and the like;
(4) You are qualified for the offered job by virtue of education, experience, and other qualifications;
(5) The church or religious organization has an IRC 501(c)(3) exemption status; and
(6) The church or religious organization has sufficient financial ability to pay you the offered salary.
2. We can help you to apply for R-1/R-2 status in the United States
If you are in the United States under a non-immigrant status such as B-1, B-2, F-1, F-2, H-1B, H-4, L-1A, L-1B, L-2, E-2 now, in order to change your status to R-1, you must be offered a job by a church or religious organization in the United States, and the church or religious organization must file with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) a R-1 petition for you. Your spouse and kids in the US may file an application to change their status to R-2.
However, if you are in the US under Visa Waiver Program, you cannot apply for changing status to R-1 or any other non-immigrant status. To get R-1 visa, you must go back to your home country and apply for visa stamp in the US Embassy or Consulate with a jurisdiction over your residence.
The R-1 petition must include documentation showing that:
(1) You have a job offer;
(2) The job offer is from an American church or religious organization;
(3) The job duty is in religious nature, such as working as pastor, associate pastor, assistant pastor, music pastor, youth pastor, pianist, and the like;
(4) You are qualified for the offered job by virtue of education, experience, and other qualifications;
(5) The church or religious organization has an IRC 501(c)(3) exemption status; and
(6) The church or religious organization has sufficient financial ability to pay you the offered salary.
Warning: Before the R-1 petition is approved by the USCIS, you are not allowed to work for the church or religious organization.
Your non-immigrant status is changed to R-1 as soon as the R-1 petition is approved. Although you will work for the church or religious organization in the U.S. in R-1 status, this status is not the same thing as R-1 visa. If you plan to travel to another country, you should prepare the visa application package, so that you may apply for R-1 visa stamp before you return to U.S.
Without R-1 visa stamp in your passport, the immigration officer at the U.S. Custom may not allow you to enter the U.S. That will cause you a lot of inconvenience.
3. We can help you to apply for permanent residence
Before you can apply for green cards in the United States, your employer, i.e., the church or religious organization, must first file an immigration petition on your behalf and the petition must be approved.
Then, based on the approved immigration petition, you, your spouse and your children younger than 21 years old can apply for adjustment of status for permanent residence.
At the time you file your application for adjustment of status, you and your spouse can also apply for (1) EAD, the employment authorization documentation, also called work permit, and (2) Advance Parole, also called international travel document.
Warning: Before your application for adjustment of status is approved, if you do not have a valid R-1 or R-2 visa stamp in your passport, you must apply for and receive an Advance Parole before your departure. Submission of the application for Advance Parole before the departure is not enough. If you left the U.S. before you received the Advance Parole, you may not be allowed to enter the United States.
MORE ABOUT R-1
The basic steps from R-1 visa to green:
For religious workers, there are usually three steps to apply for permanent residence:
(1) Obtaining R-1 status,
(2) Getting Church's immigration petition approved, and
(3) Filing yours and your family's application for adjustment of status.
We help you to prepare the packages for your R-1 visa application and your family member's R-2 visa application in your home country.
We help the US church or the religious organization to prepare the R-1 petition on your behalf, and change your non-immigrant status to R-1/R-2.
We help the US church or the religious organization to prepare the immigration petition on your behalf.
We help you to apply for adjustment of status (i.e., the application for permanent residence) as soon as the church's immigration petition on your behalf is approved.
We help you to apply for travel documents (advance parole) and work permit (EAD) when, or after, your green card applications are filed.
We have over 10 years of experience of helping ministers, missionaries, pastors, associate pastors, assistant pastors, music pastors, and other "religious workers" in handling their legal matters in the United States.
“Can I change to a new church?”
You may change to another church while you are under R-1 status. However, before you start working for the new church, the new church must file a new R-1 petition on your behalf and the new R-1 petition must be approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Remember: Before the new R-1 petition is approved by the USCIS, you may not work for the new church, and thus, you should not resign from the current church that you are working for.
If you are not quite sure about this, please contact Leon E. Jew, attorney at law, at (510) 785-9588, or (510) 710-3539, or visa@dahyee.com
“Can I start a new church?”
We can help you to set up a new church and apply for state tax exemption status and Federal IRC 501(c)(3) exemption status.
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