How do I sponsor a migrant?
Tier 2 - ministers of religion
This page explains the requirements you must meet to get a licence and sponsor migrants under the tier 2 - ministers of religion category of the points-based system to work.
If you want to apply for a licence under this category, your orgainisation must be a genuine (bona fide) religious institution. It must be a registered, excepted or exempt United Kingdom charity according to the relevant charity legislation in force in its part of the United Kingdom, or an ecclesiastical corporation (either corporation sole or body corporate) established for charitable purposes. In Northern Ireland, it must have got charitable status for tax purposes from HM Revenue & Customs. Charities that are not registered according to the relevant charity legislation must explain the reason for non-registration when they apply.
Your organisation must be the structure for a faith-based community with a common system of belief and spiritual goals, codes of behaviour and religious practice, which exists to support and spread those common beliefs and practices and where such beliefs:
- include any religious belief or similar philosophical belief in something transcendental, metaphysical or ultimate; and
- exclude any philosophical or political belief concerned with man, unless that belief is similar to religious belief.
Additionally, your organisation must:
- not exclude from its community on the basis of gender, nationality or ethnicity;
- receive financial and material support for its core religious ministry from its congregation or community on a voluntary basis only, without promise or coercion;
- not breach, or encourage others to breach, any United Kingdom legislation; and
- not work against the public interest, or in a way that has a negative effect on personal or family life in the United Kingdom.
Work of a missionary
The work of a missionary is not restricted to preaching and teaching, and can include the organisation of missionary activity, but should not be essentially administrative or clerical, unless filling a senior post. Migrants may not be doing fieldwork themselves but can be supervising staff or co-ordinating the organisation of missionary work, or be in charge of a particular activity such as accounts, finance, personnel management or IT. Working full-time as a teacher in a school run by a church or missionary organisation does not count as missionary work, but translating religious texts is missionary work not clerical work.
Work of a member of a religious order
The work of a member of a religious order must be within the order itself, or outside work directed by the order. Teachers working in schools not maintained by their order must apply as a teacher under the tier 2 - skilled worker category. Novices whose training consists of taking part in the daily community life of their order can apply under this category, but anyone studying for a qualification, a formal full-time course of study or training in an academic institution not maintained by the order should apply under tier 4 of the points-based system.