H1B Visa for a Pastor

My Church applied my H1B for me as a Pastor. The Nebraska center just denied because they say that a Bachelor’s degree is not required for a Pastor. Is that true?

USCIS believes that there is a significant amount of fraud in religious worker visas and immigration has taken a hard line on these types of applications. That being said, it is quite common for a pastor position to require a BA or even an MDiv. Your denomination should have regulations for the requirements for pastor type positions and it shouldn’t be too difficult to evidence the requirements. Additionally, you likely qualify for an R1 visa and I recommend you contact my office to see if we can help you with an R1 or an appeal of you H1B denial.

Posted on August 22, 2012 at 7:27 pm by Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith · Permalink
In: H-1B Visa, R-1 Visa · Tagged with: ,

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