(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on December 19, 2025, that the State Department plans to roll out a new religious worker visa plan “early next month,” creating a standalone pathway separate from competing EB-4 applicants, including those from the unaccompanied minors program.
“We’re not discriminating in favor of one versus another. Some denominations are more professionalized in terms of what they’re able to provide us with and information versus others,”
Rubio said at a press conference in Washington.
Rubio said the State Department has been working with religious authorities across denominations and will include country-specific requirements tied to applicants’ origins and denominations.
“We have country-specific requirements depending on the country they’re coming from. But I think we have a good plan in place to put that into effect,”
Rubio said.“I think we’re going to get to a good place. We don’t have it ready yet. All this takes time to put together, but we’re moving quickly. I think we’ll have something positive about that at some point next month, hopefully in the early part of next month,”
Rubio said.
Religious worker visas include temporary R-1 visas and permanent EB-4 green cards, known as employment-based fourth preference.
The category requires at least two years of membership in the same denomination and a job offer from a qualifying nonprofit religious organization.
A July 2025 USCIS report cited widespread fraud in the permanent residence program for unaccompanied minors, which the material said caused backlogs for migrant priests and religious workers.
The delays have fed concerns in Catholic dioceses and other religious organizations that rely on foreign-born clergy and workers for ministry and services.
The State Department worked with multiple groups on the new process, including the Catholic Church and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, known as the USCCB.
“We are grateful for the administration’s attention to this important issue for the Church and value the opportunity for ongoing dialogue to address these challenges so the faithful can have access to the sacraments and other essential ministries,”
a USCCB spokesperson told Catholic News Agency.
Rubio has previously committed to a “standalone process” for religious workers in the EB-4 category, and on Friday tied the upcoming State Department rollout to that pledge.
The announcement comes as a related piece of the EB-4 system remains on a short-term clock for some religious workers who are not ministers.
The non-minister “Certain Religious Workers” subcategory, known as SR, has been subject to periodic lapses and extensions that can affect visa issuance and adjustments.
H.R. 5371, signed on November 12, 2025, extends the non-minister SR subcategory until January 30, 2026.
The law sets a cutoff tied to midnight January 29, 2026, after which no SR visas can be issued overseas or adjusted, and the material said prior visas expire then, with admissions required by that date.
The Visa Bulletin dates have reflected the pressure on the category and the wait times facing many applicants.
In the December 2025 Visa Bulletin, the SR final action date was 01SEP20 for all chargeability countries.
The January 2026 Visa Bulletin shows SR final action date advancing to 01JAN21, with the material also citing 15MAR21 in some charts.
The uncertainty has weighed particularly on non-minister roles, including religious teachers, missionaries and liturgical workers, which the material said face planning challenges under the short-term extension framework.
Ministers have permanent EB-4 access, but the broader employment-based fourth preference category shares limits with other groups, including juveniles and broadcasters.
That shared structure has contributed to retrogression and closer scrutiny on qualifications, finances and duties, the material said.
Catholic officials and dioceses have pointed to concrete consequences in recent months as the backlogs and deadlines squeezed work and travel.
Priests in the Archdiocese of Boston were advised to avoid international travel due to deportation risks, the material said.
A Catholic diocese in New Jersey filed, then dropped, a lawsuit in November 2025 over EB-4 rule changes affecting foreign-born priests, according to the material.
The USCCB has also framed the issue against a wider backdrop of immigration vulnerability among congregations.
In March 2025, the USCCB reported that 1 in 12 Christians and 1 in 5 Catholics in the U.S. face deportation risk or live with someone who does, the material said.
Rubio on Friday described the coming process as a way to separate religious worker cases from competing demands within EB-4, including cases linked to the unaccompanied minors program, while stressing that the State Department’s approach is intended to avoid denominational preference.
His remarks also suggested the government is relying on varying levels of documentation and institutional capacity among denominations as it develops requirements.
The plan’s reference to “country-specific requirements” points to a structure that could differ depending on where applicants are from, and Rubio tied that to information the government receives from religious authorities.
The State Department has not yet laid out an exact effective date for the new process, nor did Rubio announce visa numbers or operational steps during the press conference.
The timing matters for religious organizations watching the late-January deadline structure surrounding the SR program and the movement of Visa Bulletin dates into January 2026.
The coming weeks could also be consequential for applicants trying to coordinate overseas travel, consular appointments and U.S.-based status steps while keeping an eye on cutoff dates and admissions requirements.
For dioceses and faith groups, the stakes are both administrative and pastoral, with leaders arguing that staffing gaps can ripple into services and sacramental access.
The USCCB spokesperson’s statement cast the State Department’s work as tied directly to ministry, saying, “so the faithful can have access to the sacraments and other essential ministries.”
Rubio’s timeline for the religious worker visa plan also places the next set of details squarely in January 2026, when the State Department says it expects to have the new standalone pathway ready “early next month.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed plans for a new standalone religious worker visa process starting in early January 2026. By separating these applicants from the broader, backlogged EB-4 category, the State Department aims to resolve delays impacting clergy and staff. This administrative change follows concerns over program fraud and seeks to provide a reliable pathway for religious organizations to sustain their essential ministries and sacramental access.
