The present article investigates the effect of second-order slip, chemical reaction and Soret and Dufour effects on MHD convective flow of an Oldroyd-B liquid toward a stretchy surface. Analysis of thermal relaxation time is made by using Cattaneo–Christov heat flux model. The effects of radiation and convective heating are also taken into account. The ordinary differential equations are retrieved by the help of suitable transformations of governing equations. The analytical solutions are observed by homotopy progress. The velocity, concentration and temperature field are analyzed for various pertinent parameters involved in the study. The graphical results of physical quantities of interest such as skin friction, local Nusselt number and local Sherwood number are presented. A comparative study with existing result indicates excellent agreement.