Charity Worker Visa UK from Philippines

Filipino employers who have businesses in the UK can bring foreign workers to come and work for their UK-based businesses through a Charity Work visa. The UK Charity Work visa permits charity workers to enter the UK and work for a charity organization for up to 1 year or any other period stated on their certificate of sponsorship, whichever is shorter.

Before you are allowed to bring a foreign worker into the UK via the Charity Worker visa, your business must be a Home Office-licensed charity in the country. You must sponsor your prospective employee to come and work for your UK-based company by issuing them a certificate of sponsorship which bears their unique reference numbers (not an actual certificate or paper document).

Page Contents

• Overview: Charity Work Visa
• Eligibility Requirements for Charity Work Visa UK
• Sponsor license and Certificate of Sponsorship Requirement
• Required Documents for Charity Worker Visa
• Apply for Charity Worker Visa UK
• Processing Time and Application Cost
• How Long Workers Can Stay in the UK on Charity Work Visa?
• What Workers Can and Cannot Do
• How Total Law Can Help?
• Frequently Asked Questions

As a Filipino employer, to sponsor a foreign worker to come and work for your charity business in the UK, you and your prospective employees must meet certain eligibility criteria. As an employer, you must meet the following eligibility criteria. You must:

• Not having a revoked license in the past 1 year.
• Have no crimes of fraud, money laundering or unspent criminal convictions for breaking immigration rules.
• Have adequate systems and people to observe your sponsored employees and manage sponsorship in your business respectively.

Your prospective employees must meet the following eligibility criteria. They must:

• Be 18 years old at the time of applying for the visa.
• Possess a certificate of sponsorship reference number you issued them.
• Apply for charity work that meets certain criteria.
• Have the capacity to undertake the work they’re being sponsored.
• Have at least £1,270 or enough money to sustain themselves when they enter the UK.
• Have £600, that is £285 for their partner, £315 for one child and £200 for any other child joining them on the visa.
• Provide a tuberculosis test result (if required).

As a Filipino employer who wants to bring foreign workers to come and work for your UK-based business, you must obtain a sponsor license. A sponsor license will allow you to lawfully bring foreign workers to come and work for your business in the UK.

After obtaining your sponsor license you can now issue certificates of sponsorship to your prospective foreign employees. The certificate of sponsorship bears the unique reference numbers of your employees, their details, roles, and working hours. Their certificate of sponsorship will be required in their application for a Charity Worker visa.

As a Filipino employer who wants to bring foreign workers to come and work for your UK-based charity business via Charity visa UK sponsorship, your prospective employees must provide the following documents:

• A valid international passport.
• Proof of their financial subsistence when they enter the UK.
• Their certificate of sponsorship reference number.
• Proof of relationship with their partner or children if they want to join them on the Charity Worker visa.
• Their tuberculosis test result (if required).

Note that your situation will largely determine whether you will be asked to provide additional documents to support your application or not. Besides that, ensure that a licensed translator translates documents in a foreign language into English or Welsh. Also, ensure that all your documents are notarized.

As a Filipino employer, you must issue a certificate of sponsorship to your proposed charity workers after obtaining the type of sponsor license you want. Thereafter, the charity workers must now apply for a Charity Worker visa from outside the UK.

The charity workers must prove their identity and apply online to obtain this visa. When applying for this visa, the applicants will be directed on what to do at each application stage. If they are required to come for an appointment, then they:

• Will submit a digital scan of their fingerprints and photographs (biometric information) at a visa application center. This will be vital in obtaining their biometric residence permit.
• Will scan their identity documents with the ID Check app of UK immigration. Also, they may create their UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) account or sign into their accounts if they already have an existing one.
• Will be asked to visit their nearest visa application centre.
• Will keep their passport and documents while their applications are being processed.

It typically takes about 3 weeks to get a decision on a Charity Worker visa application from outside the UK. Whereas the applications made within the UK will take up to 8 weeks to be processed.

The fees for a Charity Worker visa depend on your prospective employee’s situation. However, they include:

• £19.20
  for biometric information.
• £340 for Charity visa application.
• £1035 for Immigration Health Surcharge.
• £1,270 as personal savings.

As a Filipino employer, your foreign workers can do charity work for you for up to 1 year in the UK. But they can enter the UK 14 days before their jobs start.

Your employees who hold a Charity Worker visa have some restrictions. They can:

• Work for you in the job stated in their certificate of sponsorship.
• Be permitted to volunteer for another organization only when it’s the role they’re sponsored for, up to 20 hours weekly.
• Be allowed to study essential courses.
• Bring their partner and children, if they qualify.

You cannot:

• Get public funds.
• Be paid for work.
• Have a permanent job.