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The Temporary Work - Religious Worker route is for a person who wants to come to the UK to support the activities of religious institutions by conducting religious work such as working in a religious order or undertaking non-pastoral work for a religious organisation. A person on the Religious Worker route can stay in the UK for up to a maximum of two years.
A partner and children can apply as dependants on this route.
The Religious Worker route is not a route to settlement.
A Minister of Religion must apply on the T2 Minister of Religion route if their engagement in the UK involves leading a congregation in performing rites, rituals and preaching the essentials of the creed as its core duties.
RW 1.1. A person applying for entry clearance or permission to stay as a Religious Worker must apply online on gov.uk on the specified form as follows:
| Applicant | Specified form |
|---|---|
| EEA national with a chipped passport | Either: Temporary Worker using the UK Immigration: ID Check app; or the forms listed below for applicants outside or inside the UK (as relevant) |
| Applicants outside the UK | Temporary Worker visa |
| Applicants inside the UK | Temporary Worker |
- RW 1.2. An application for entry clearance or permission to stay as a Religious Worker must meet all the following requirements:
- (a) any fee and Immigration Health Charge must have been paid; and
- (b) the applicant must have provided biometrics when required; and
- (c) the applicant must have provided a passport or other travel document which satisfactorily establishes their identity and nationality; and
- (d) the applicant must have a Certificate of Sponsorship that was issued to them no more than 3 months before the date of application.
RW 1.3. The applicant must be aged 18 or over on the date of application.
RW 1.4. If applying for permission to stay, the applicant must be in the UK on the date of application.
RW 1.4A. If applying for permission to stay, the applicant must have, or have last had, permission as a Religious Worker.
RW 1.5. An application which does not meet all the validity requirements for a Religious Worker may be rejected as invalid and not considered.
RW 2.1. The applicant must not fall for refusal under Part 9: grounds for refusal.
- RW 2.2. If applying for permission to stay the applicant must not be:
- (a) in breach of immigration laws, except that where paragraph 39E applies, that period of overstaying will be disregarded; or
- (b) on immigration bail.
Entry requirements for a Religious Worker
RW 3.1. A person seeking to come to the UK on the Religious Worker route must have applied for and obtained entry clearance as a Religious Worker before they arrive in the UK.
RW 3.2. A person applying for entry clearance as a Religious Worker must, if Appendix Tuberculosis applies, provide a valid medical certificate confirming that they have undergone screening for active pulmonary tuberculosis and that this tuberculosis is not present in them.
RW 3.3. An applicant for entry clearance must not have had permission as a Religious Worker or Charity Worker at any time during the 12 months immediately before the date of application unless they can show they were not in the UK at any time during those 12 months.
Sponsorship requirement for a Religious Worker
- RW 4.1. The applicant must have a valid Certificate of Sponsorship for the job they are planning to do; which to be valid must:
- (a)confirm the applicants name, that they are being sponsored as a Religious Worker, details of the job and pay the sponsor is offering them; and
- (b)include a start date, stated by the sponsor, which is no more than 3 months after the date of application; and
- (c)not have been used in a previous application which was either granted or refused (but can have been used in a previous application which was rejected as invalid, made void or withdrawn); and
- (d)not have been withdrawn by the sponsor or cancelled by the Home Office; and
- (e)confirm that the role meets the requirements at RW 4.3; and
- (f)confirm whether the applicant is a member of the sponsors order, if the sponsor is a religious order; and
- (g)confirm that the applicant will receive pay and conditions at least equal to those given to settled workers in the same role; and
- (h)confirm that the pay complies with or is exempt from the National Minimum Wage; and
- (i)confirm that the requirements of the resident labour consideration, as set out in RW 4.2, in respect of the job, have been complied with, or that the applicant is applying for permission to stay and the sponsor is the same sponsor as in their last grant of permission as a Religious Worker.
- RW 4.2. The requirements of the resident labour consideration are:
- (a) that the role is supernumerary, such that it is over and above the sponsors normal staffing requirements and if the person filling the role was not there, it would not need to be filled by anyone else (with a full explanation of why it is supernumerary); or
- (b) that the role involves living mainly within and being a member of a religious order, which must be a lineage of communities or of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, for example an order of nuns or monks; or
- (c) that the sponsor holds national records
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