R-1 Religious Worker Visa Audits: FOIA Suit Targets USCIS

An R-1 religious worker visa comes with a promise of federal checking: USCIS can inspect the church, temple or mosque that sponsors the worker, before or after approval. A FOIA lawsuit filed Oct. 20 in federal court in New Jersey asks what those checks have actually found, and why USCIS has released only one heavily redacted spreadsheet in nearly four years.

The plaintiff is American Atheists, a New Jersey nonprofit that advocates for the separation of religion and government. Its complaint, filed in the Camden vicinage of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (No. 2:26-cv-13622), says USCIS has never answered an administrative appeal the group filed in July and did not search the offices likely to hold the underlying compliance files. USCIS has not responded publicly to the suit.

What the spreadsheet already shows about R-1 compliance

The request, sent Dec. 2, 2022, sought records of inspections and compliance reviews of R-1 employers from January 2018 through January 2020. According to the complaint, USCIS then said nothing for about three years before producing a single spreadsheet on April 9, 2026.

That one document is the most telling part of the case. The complaint describes it as basic information on approximately 6,000 R-1 visa holders and their employers, with columns recording whether each was found “compliant” or had a deficiency. The deficiency types listed as examples include “material misrepresentation,” “not started working,” “wages” and “no physical location,” along with whether a site visit was completed. The complaint gives no counts for any category, and the reasons for unsuccessful visits are redacted.

A spreadsheet that summarizes findings implies site reports behind it, and the complaint argues USCIS must produce those records or justify withholding them. Its four counts allege failure to respond, an inadequate search, wrongful withholding and failure to decide the appeal, and it asks for production within 20 days of a court order.

Why the R-1 site-visit program draws scrutiny

When DHS rewrote the religious worker rules in November 2008, the Federal Register preamble cited a USCIS benefit fraud assessment that found an “established fraud rate of 33%” in the special immigrant religious worker program. The 2008 rule let USCIS verify a petitioner’s claims “through any means determined appropriate,” up to an on-site inspection, and USCIS opened its administrative site visit program, which lists special immigrant religious worker petitions, before and after adjudication, among its targets, in July 2009.

For years USCIS policy went further than the regulation, inspecting every religious worker petitioner before approval. The complaint says a March 2, 2023, Policy Manual update dropped that blanket requirement. Inspections now happen at USCIS’s discretion, which makes the results of the visits it still conducts the main public evidence of how well the program is policed.

The program is small but has rebounded since the pandemic, as the table shows. In the January 2026 rule that removed the one-year-abroad requirement for R-1 workers who reach the five-year limit, USCIS counted 11,199 new R-1 approvals in the 30 months before May 2023. Earlier coverage explains that rule and how it works in practice.

Fiscal year	R-1 visas issued	R-2 (family) visas issued
2020	1,732	667
2021	1,942	835
2022	4,098	1,806
2023	5,330	2,679
2024	5,186	2,709

Source: State Department, Report of the Visa Office, Table XV(B), FY2020 to FY2024. Visas issued abroad only; workers who change status inside the U.S. are not counted.

The complaint links the request to labor-trafficking allegations, chiefly a 2021 New Jersey civil suit by workers who said BAPS, a Hindu denomination, brought them on religious visas to build a temple for about $1.20 an hour, as the Associated Press reported. BAPS disputed the wage claim. In September 2025, BAPS announced the Justice Department had closed its criminal investigation without charges, Religion News Service reported; the civil case continues.

What comes next for sponsors and workers

The lawsuit does not touch any pending R-1 petition. FOIA lets a court order an agency to release records, nothing more. Its practical effect would come if USCIS releases redacted site-visit reports, giving sponsors their first public look at how often a visit ends in a finding of misrepresentation or unpaid wages.

Under FOIA, the government’s answer is due 30 days after it is served. Cases like this often end in a court-supervised production schedule, and the open question is how much USCIS withholds under the privacy and law enforcement exemptions. For R-1 workers already squeezed by the five-year cap and the EB-4 backlog, the spreadsheet’s categories already show what reviewers check: whether the worker started, is paid as promised and works at the stated location. That matters most when a green card case is also pending (see how a job mismatch affects Form I-485).

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds a LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Deigo and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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