AILA Practice Pointer: removal of one-year abroad requirement for religious workers

On February 23, 2026, the American Immigration Lawyers Association published a practice pointer on DHS’s January 16, 2026 Interim Final Rule that removes the one-year abroad requirement for religious workers seeking to extend their stay in the US. See our alert from last month about the Interim Final Rule here. AILA’s practice pointer discusses several aspects of the Interim Final Rule such as when the “five year clock” restarts for the R-1 visa, petition filing timing, potential consular processing issues, applicability to R-2 dependents, and retaining priority dates for religious workers. 

Read AILA’s Practice Pointer here.