Anyone hosting/in the process of hosting Ukrainian guests?

[ColinRobinsonsFart]

Does anyone want to join me in banging heads against a wall? The email today has just been the cherry on the whole fucking thing.
My guests are a retired couple who are at their wits end. They left Bucha a month ago. We have been waiting for their visas for over two weeks.
I did their applications for them - they don't speak or read English. They send any emails they receive to me and they obviously translate it themselves. The last email made them think I hadn't sent the documents- cue tears and upset. It is cruel.

Sorry for the moan

I'm not surprised you've had enough.

We applied on the 19th and finally got 2 yesterday and the third this morning. so getting on for 3 weeks. It's been an horrendous wait and its so frustrating especially with no way of checking the status of the visa.

I saw today's email posted on facebook - It's a mess - I dont think it's meant to be cruel but that's how it feels. They are playing games with vulnerable, displaced people and we the hosts are stuck in the middle.

I really hope they come very very soon. They are trickling through now and I felt like you do now until yesterday lunch time. It's horrible knowing that people are relying on you but there's absolutely nothing you can do as things stand.

Our guests won't travel immediately as they have a problem with their cat (she had kittens in Poland so they're too young to travel) and need to find someone to foster them all in Poland.

Here you go a little light(ish) relief

@listsandbudgets

Here you go a little light(ish) relief

That is funny.... and actually not funny! I sent a message saying the country is run by folk who like to make lots of documents which need to be in duplicate and triplicate. And even British folk find them confusing. My guests are retired teachers and lived under USSR rule for all of their younger lives.... they laughed at my documents - ours are nothing in comparison!!!

I don't know if you're familiar with Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy but I have been thinking a lot about the Vogons recently:

"Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy- not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn’t even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters."

Yup - but ffs don't let them recite any poetry to you!!!!