Visa Issues for Missions Groups

May 15, 2009 – 2:27 pm

Religious groups’ travels hampered due to visa regulations

Christianity Today ran an article today highlighting the difficulty religious groups are facing in obtaining visas for entry into the U.K. and the U.S.

Over the last year, the United Kingdom has phased in a points-based immigration system designed to regulate the labor market and help prevent terrorism.

However, the new system has thrown Christian workers and organizations into confusion because the U.K. Border Agency has not taken into account the complexity of religious activities, the Evangelical Alliance said.

The London-based advocacy group for the nation’s estimated two million evangelicals cites a number of cases in which groups or individuals were refused entry after traveling to the U.K. to speak or volunteer.

Alliance leaders have drawn up guidelines to help Christians navigate the system and posted them online (eauk.org).

“Some of the problems we have seen are due to churches not being fully aware of their new responsibilities, while on other occasions, immigration officials have wrongly banned people from the country because they haven’t understood their own rules,” said Daniel Webster, parliamentary officer for the Evangelical Alliance.

Amid fears of terrorism, religious worker visas have come under heightened scrutiny in the United States as well.

“I can’t say that the government is particularly easy on any occupation,” said Peter Cramer, an immigration attorney in Boston. “However, in the last few years, religious workers have come under increased scrutiny because of a fraud audit … which found one-third of the cases to be tainted by fraud.”

Entire article.

HT: @NationsBeGlad