Tier 2 Minister of Religion Visa

To be eligible for a Religious Worker Visa, you must have been offered a position in one of the following roles:

• minister of religion;
  
• missionary; or
• religious worker.

Your job offer must have come from a registered Tier 2 UK Sponsor licensed to hire foreign nationals and you must meet the English Language requirements and prove that you have enough maintenance funds to support your travel and any dependents you are taking with you to the UK.

What you can and can’t do

You can:

• work for your sponsor in the job described in your certificate of sponsorship
• do a second job - in certain circumstances
• do voluntary work
• study as long as it doesn’t interfere with the job you’re sponsored for
• travel abroad and return to the UK
• bring family members (‘dependants’) with you

You can’t:

• own more than 10% of your sponsor’s shares (unless you earn more than £159,600 a year)
• get public funds

If you have trained for a year full-time with a ministry, you will be able to come to the UK to work as a Minister of Religion with a Religious Worker Visa. In order to do this, you need to be able to prove that you have trained for a year for this role.

Yes, you may be able to extend your stay for an additional three years. To be able to extend your visa you will have to demonstrate that you are still needed in your minister of religion or religious worker position and must prove that you can meet the same requirements as when you applied for your Minister of Religion Visa.

You can take a second job but this job needs to be either in the same profession, a profession on the UK Shortage Occupation List or unpaid voluntary work. This job cannot negatively affect your visa sponsored job.