One of the most striking developments during Boris Johnson’s premiership was what has since become known as the Boriswave, a massive increase in migration. The sharp rise in legal immigration after 2019 was driven largely by non-EU migration, particularly from India and Nigeria. That reflected both a loosening of the immigration rules and the abuse of this newly opened immigration system.
To give some sense of the scale, in the 25 years before 1997, cumulative net migration was 68,000. In the 25 years after 1997, it was 5.89 million. Then in just four years, 2021–24, net immigration was 2.5 million. That is equivalent to population growth of 3.8% in those few years. The Centre for Policy Studies has estimated that the Boriswave has increased the foreign-born share of the United Kingdom’s population to 19.6%, or almost one in every five people in Britain today.
Although a major theme of the pro-Brexit campaign had been to reduce immigration, Boris Johnson’s government used its new-found freedom outside the EU to loosen the rules. It abolished the cap on non-EU migration, opened up recruitment to lower-skilled workers, lowered the salary threshold needed for jobs, introduced new low-skilled visas like the one for care workers and allowed many of these migrants to bring their dependants with them. As those on work visas could apply for permanent residency after five years and citizenship after another year, many non-EU migrants used this as a pathway to permanent settlement.
Among the lesser-known visa categories are those for Religious Workers, including missionaries and monks, and Ministers of Religion, such as priests and pastors.
Statement, in cooperation with Cambridge Circus Research (CCR), examined Home Office data on religious visas, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, to better understand how the system has been used and abused.
Shifting Compositions of Migration
The total number of religious visas issued has remained relatively stable over time. Since 2019, however, the composition of those visas has changed significantly. Following the introduction of the post-Brexit immigration system in 2020, the number of Religious Worker visas declined while the number of Minister of Religion visas increased.
The national composition of visa holders also became more diverse. Since 2019, the share of visas issued to the ten largest source countries has fallen, while the proportion issued to countries outside the top ten has risen. This broadly mirrors wider immigration trends, with legal migration increasingly shifting away from the European Union toward countries such as India and Nigeria. The number of visas issued to Nigerians increased from 119 in 2019 to 242 in 2024, more than doubling.
Religious Worker visas continue to be dominated by Americans, who have consistently been the largest nationality in this category over the last decade. This is largely explained by Mormon missionaries and the close links between churches in the United States and the United Kingdom. Most missionaries stay only temporarily before returning home.
Although the number of Minister of Religion visas has not significantly shifted, the composition has. Minister of Religion visas account for just under 17% of those issued to Americans, due to the large number of missionaries, and between 20% and 30% of almost all the other top nationalities. The exception is Nigeria, where they account for 62% of religious visas issued. This figure is more than double the proportion seen for most other countries and stands out as an unusual pattern that warrants closer scrutiny.
Nigeria Has a Record of Immigration Fraud
That the anomaly involves Nigeria is especially concerning because it was the nation at the center of one of the largest immigration and qualification fraud investigations involving Britain's healthcare system. In 2023, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) uncovered evidence of widespread proxy test-taking at the Yunnik Technologies testing center in Ibadan, where candidates were suspected of paying stand-ins to sit the computer-based examination required for registration in the UK.
Almost 2,000 candidates sat the test at the center before it was closed, while 512 had already joined the UK nursing register when the fraud came to light. The NMC launched fitness to practise investigations and required affected nurses to demonstrate that they had legitimately met the required standards. The investigation went on for over two years, with all nurses who passed tests there required to resit them in order to prove they had genuinely passed.
This is not the only example of mass fraud involving Nigerian nationals. In late 2024, an organized crime group from Nigeria was convicted of forging more than 2,000 marriage certificates in order to allow people to live in the United Kingdom illegally.
Similarly, in 2025 the BBC uncovered a Nigerian doctor working for the NHS who moonlighted as a visa recruitment agent. His company, CareerEdu, claimed that it helped Africans get visas to Britain and that it had nearly 10,000 “happy clients”.
When contacted by an undercover journalist, he tried to recruit her to become an agent, telling her that he could make her a millionaire. He offered to pay $2,600 for each care home vacancy, with a $650 commission for the agent. Then he would sell those vacancies to clients in Nigeria, even though that is illegal in Britain.
One Nigerian victim who spoke to the BBC said that he had paid over $10,000 for a job in a care home, only to discover it did not exist.
The undercover journalists uncovered another scam, in which Certificates of Sponsorship for jobs that did not exist were sold to migrants from Nigeria. Fake payroll documents were manufactured in order to deceive the authorities.
Nigeria is not alone in being over-represented when it comes to immigration fraud. BBC journalists have also uncovered fraud involving Indian care workers and international students who paid five-figure sums to agents for fake jobs or certificates. Nonetheless, the fact that the anomaly involving Minister of Religion visas concerns Nigerian nationals raises questions about whether religious visas are being abused.
Social Media Advertising
Search results for religious visas on social media websites such as YouTube are also indicative. A search finds numerous videos advertising the visas, often focusing on the practical rather than spiritual benefits of the visa.
One video extols the fact that migrants on the visa can move to the United Kingdom without needing experience, qualifications or the ability to speak English. It also cites the ability to bring a spouse and children and to work a second job while on the visa. Many of the videos are by Nigerians.
Other work by Cambridge Circus Research has uncovered a range of evidence involving sponsors which suggests either that standards are too low or that fraud is going on. For example, CCR found 319 businesses with very low food hygiene ratings which nonetheless hold 1,000 Certificates of Sponsorship between them, although holding a certificate does not mean that it has actually been used.
These anomalies demonstrate just how badly run Britain’s immigration system is and how easy it is to abuse the system. Whether there is fraud going on among many of those seeking religious visas remains to be seen. It will take official investigation by the authorities to establish that in a court of law. However, it is clear from the online advertisements that many of those interested in making use of the religious visas are not doing so in good faith.
