London, England - Indian expats in the UK need no longer fear losing their religion. The UK government has proposed a relaxation of immigration rules affecting ministers of religion.
Priests from outside UK will now get four years instead of two to take citizenship tests, and English language testing would be required up to a specific level. Religious workers like the poojari who don’t preach to a congregation will now apply for a new non-settlement visa, which is valid for two years.
This visa is for religious workers who don’t preach, but perform non-pastoral duties. This religious non-pastoral worker is one whose duties include performing religious rites, like reading scriptures or tending to deities. New provisions, which will have to be approved by the UK Parliament, are aimed at achieving a better balance between helping communities find qualified religious workers and maintaining immigration controls.
Even as provisions like English efficiency have been eased, the new rules need the UK community to take more responsibility for religious and non-pastoral workers.
A senior member of the community will have to verify that the priest is an established religious worker outside UK. Religious workers in non-pastoral roles will need to have at least a year full-time, or equivalent part-time training in their faith in the past five years. Religious workers in non-pastoral roles would need a letter from their community confirming that another member of the religious community speaks English.
Representatives of the Hindu community have asked the government to define an acceptable accreditation process that would be applicable to Hindus. This is crucial as many temples don’t have a formal process of ordainment, and this could lead to problems.
The new rules will make it easier for priests from India to apply for a visa to the UK. Since August 23 ‘04, religious ministers have been required to demonstrate spoken English competence of level 4 of the International English Language Testing System (level 4 is described as a limited user).
The UK government had planned to raise the pre-entry language requirements for new applicants in August ‘06. It had been proposed to raise it to level 6 — that of a competent user — and applicants would be required to be proficient in written English too.