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The employment-based 4th preference is for religious workers including ministers of religion; professionals working in religious vocations or occupations; and other workers in religious vocations or occupations that work for US nonprofit religious organizations or at nonprofit religious organizations affiliated with qualified religious denominations.

A petition under this preference category may be filed by or for an alien, who (either abroad or in the United States) for at least the two years preceding the filing of the petition has been a member of a religious denomination that has a bona fide nonprofit religious organization in the United States. The alien must be coming to the United States solely for the purpose of carrying on the vocation of a minister of that religious denomination, working for the organization at the organization's request in a professional capacity in a religious vocation or occupation, or working at a religious vocation or occupation for the organization or for a bona fide organization which is affiliated with a religious denomination and is exempt from taxation as an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, at the request of the organization. All three types of religious workers must have been performing the vocation, professional work, or other work continuously (either abroad or in the United States) for at least the two-year period immediately preceding the filing of the petition.

A petition for a religious worker is filed on immigration form I-360, and is filed with the immigration service center that has jurisdiction over the area where the alien will be employed.  When the petition is approved, the alien, together with the spouse and unmarried minor children, can file their applications for immigrant visas with a US consulate if they are outside of the United States, or they can file for adjustment of status with USCIS if they are in the United States and are eligible for adjustment of status.