Two developments landed for religious workers and the organizations that petition for them, and together they are worth more attention than either would draw alone.
First, the visa numbers. In the September 2026 Visa Bulletin, EB-4 — the fourth employment-based preference, which covers certain special immigrants including religious workers — advanced its final action date by two months to December 15, 2022, for all countries. That makes EB-4 the only employment-based category to move at all this month. EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 final action dates held unchanged from August, and EB-2 India remains unavailable. For a category that has spent long stretches retrogressed or unavailable, a worldwide two-month advance is meaningful movement.
The timing carries a caveat. September is the last month of fiscal year 2026, and year-end advances frequently signal that the State Department has unused numbers it is trying to issue before the September 30 deadline rather than a lasting change in demand. Analysts expect the October bulletin, which opens fiscal year 2027 with a fresh allocation, to hold or modestly retreat rather than continue advancing at a two-month monthly pace. Applicants whose priority dates just became current should act on that window now rather than assume it widens.
Second, USCIS published new resources for R-1 nonimmigrant religious workers and their petitioning employers, announced through the agency’s own social accounts and reflected in an update to the agency’s R-1 page dated September 2, 2026. The materials walk through who may qualify for R-1 classification, how employers file Form I-129, what evidence may be required, and how R-1 extensions work. R-1 status is available to a person coming temporarily to work at least part time — an average of at least 20 hours per week — as a minister or in a religious vocation or occupation.
The two items connect. R-1 is the temporary classification; EB-4 is the permanent one, and the special immigrant religious worker path is a common route from R-1 to lawful permanent residence. Petitioning organizations are frequently small congregations without in-house immigration counsel, and R-1 adjudication is evidence-intensive, with USCIS scrutinizing the religious nature of the position, the employer’s tax-exempt status, and compensation. Clearer agency guidance on evidentiary expectations is genuinely useful to that population, and it arrives in the same month the underlying green card category is moving.
Organizations with R-1 workers approaching the five-year maximum period of stay should be reviewing EB-4 timing now, particularly given the fiscal-year transition.
These items were surfaced from the official @USCIS account on X and practitioner commentary on the September bulletin, and verified against USCIS and visa bulletin sources.
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Source: X (Twitter) @USCIS