These individuals must work for U.S.nonprofit, religious organizations or at nonprofit, religious organizations affiliated with qualified religious denominations. The two non-minister categories, religious professionals and other religious workers, are subject to, and further limited to not more than 5,000 of the annual special immigrant admissions. Historically, this annual limit has not been reached since July 1998.

This category is also those with Special Immigrant Juvenile status (SIJS). This status allows those minors who were abandoned, abused, or neglected by one or more parents and cannot return to their home country, to pursue a green card. In some cases, those minors who were adopted by a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) can qualify for this type of green card.