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1. Non British nationals already in the UK as students extending their stay for one year

Careforce enables international students already in the UK on student visas to extend their stay here and spend a year with Careforce serving with a local church or Christian project.

Will I need any special visa?

Yes! If you are in the UK on a student visa, and if you are from a country that requires you to have a UK entry visa, you will need to apply for a 12 month extension as a voluntary worker. It would be your responsibility to pay the fee for this extension if you wish to join the Careforce programme. You would need to apply for this visa within one month of your student visa ending. Careforce will help you with the necessary paperwork to obtain such a visa. Present UK visa/immigration requirements mean you would not require a work permit.

Application Procedures

Non British nationals already in the UK as students who wish to apply to join Careforce should use the special application form available here as a pdf download file. You will need to apply by August 31st to start in September. There is also a special booklet outlining this possibility in detail – press here to download this Microsoft Word file.

2. Non British nationals nominated from around the world

The Aim is:

The Aim is: 'To enable Christians aged 20 to 30 from around the world to be commended by their Pastor or Leader to serve for one to two years in the UK as Careforce volunteers.'

The basics are: 

• All candidates are required to be nominated by their Pastor/Leader who should not be related to their candidate and who will be required to complete the detailed Form A
• All candidates will need to ask 2 others to act as referees and each complete a Form C reference form – neither of these referees should be related to the candidate
• All candidates will be committed evangelical Christians with a mature Christian experience
• Actively involved already in the life and witness of their local evangelical church
• Single, aged 20 to 30 and free to travel to the UK in early September or early January
• Able to understand and speak very good English
• Fit and healthy with no history of any major health problems
• Free from any financial debt in their own country and able to raise their own funds for their visa and international travel costs
• Clear in their mind that they wish to return to their country after their time in the UK to continue to serve their church or project

Application procedures

Careforce is very grateful for over 350 international workers who have been commended to us from around the world over the last 14 years. Each has brought something very special to their placements and we know each has returned back to their own countries well equipped to continue to serve God through their own churches and projects.

There will be a small number of places on the January 2009 team and around 50 places on the September 2009 team. Please note that we will only consider those for this programme who are commended by their Pastors and Leaders.

There are special arrangements for those applying from outside the UK. Please do not use the application form actually on this website. Instead please download these two documents – they are Microsoft Word files which give the full details - we hope you can read and print these off without any problem.

• 2009 Leaders Notes give the full background information and explains how Pastors/Leaders can commend someone to Careforce
• 2009 Overseas Forms contains the three forms: Form A for the Pastor; Form B for the candidate; Form C for two individuals to write references for the candidate. Please note that we do not accept commendations or references from those related by family to the candidate.

CLOSING DATES FOR APPLICATIONS

The closing date for receiving commendations for January 2009 is August 31st. The closing date for commendations for the September 2009 team is February 28th 2009.

Second Year Option

From time to time some of our team members are asked to do a second year with Careforce. We have tried to make that possible where this is clearly seen to be for their personal development and where they can make a further valuable contribution as a Careforce voluntary worker. For non British nationals this possibility requires them to return to their own countries after their first year and to make an immediate re-application for another UK Entry visa before rejoining our team back in the UK. This second year option is only considered for those who have demonstrated their potential during their first year on the programme – we do not recruit people for two years at the outset neither do we enable people to stay within our programme for longer than two years.