thread for those interested in refugee hosting/sponsorship

[EezyOozy]

I thought I would start a new thread about this as I have just heard on BBC news that they are opening up a web form tomorrow to express interest. Apparently families/households can claim £350 a month (I assume for increased expenses) and refugees will be eligible to claim or benefits and work. We have large a spare room but live rurally so whilst I will express interest I'm not sure we will be taken up on it.

I thought I would start a new thread for those who are interested and to follow the progress of the registration procedure/how this pans out in practice.

Posted here because it's the only place I know gets plenty traffic, I will probably be asking for this to be moved but don't know where to.

The helpline really is shameful. I've called three times and not once have I had any one who could actually help me. No one is able to say whether we should start again with correct documents uploaded at the start or whether to hold tight because someone will pick it up at review stage. I am so worried about her; she's on her own in Moldova and has to leave her accommodation on Monday. I'll find her an AirBnB or hotel tomorrow if there is no update but it shouldn't be this difficult. I appreciate they had to put this together quickly but it's so badly thought through and under-resourced.

Has anyone actually managed to add documents to the application since receiving that letter?

Do you think this is a deliberate way to knock lots of applications back to the beginning so they can say they haven’t taken weeks to turn them round?

I have also seen lots of posts from people being told by the helpline not to worry about the letter, it’s just an error, though.

That's annoying if true as I was hoping she'd be able to upload the documents tomorrow.
How dare they send a letter with errors in it? These are vulnerable people in desperate circumstances - I would hope for far more thought to go into communication.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Do you think this is a deliberate way to knock lots of applications back to the beginning so they can say they haven’t taken weeks to turn them round?

Yes. I believe the Home Office is not fit for purpose. The whole immigration system is deeply flawed. I don't believe the scheme was intended to be a sham from the start but I do believe at this point they will do what they can to massage the figures to make it look better than it is.

Distracting myself from raging at the Home Office this morning by laughing at the man in the Daily Mail who is throwing his toys out of the pram because he has been told by the home check people his 3 story house really needs more than one smoke alarm.

Just spent an hour on the phone to the helpline about the issue with being asked to upload passports for all adult household members. The person on the helpline thought that you do need to do this if hosting under 18s. But she had no access to the system or ability to do anything at all except take all the details to escalate for a manager. The TLS document submission site is still not allowing you to add more documents if you've already submitted some so there is no way to add in the extra to passports, even though I have them both.

Ugh at the thought of spending an hour on the helpline.

My progress:
1.MP’s Helpful And Competent Assistant got in touch with the Home Office who said not to worry about yesterday’s letter and my lack of passport, it won’t make any difference to the application.

1. Other council lady came to give us info and inspect ID for DBS.

1. I have connected with someone else in my small town who is hosting. His guests have the opposite problem as they have the visas but are in Ukraine and may have trouble getting safely across the border. I suppose this is a worse problem to have…

That sounds a bit encouraging @countess. The helpline person I spoke to did sound like an exceptionally clueless one so I'm hoping she's wrong about needing to add the passports.

Felt so cross about it all earlier that I wrote to my MP about it. He's a rather useless wet Tory backbencher unfortunately so not holding out a lot of hope there, but seemed about the only thing left to do.

@Firefliess

Just spent an hour on the phone to the helpline about the issue with being asked to upload passports for all adult household members. The person on the helpline thought that you do need to do this if hosting under 18s. But she had no access to the system or ability to do anything at all except take all the details to escalate for a manager. The TLS document submission site is still not allowing you to add more documents if you've already submitted some so there is no way to add in the extra to passports, even though I have them both.

I'd take this as a good sign that at least TLS can see your documents. Better than asking you to constantly submit them - even though you know you've done it accurately more than once.

That original application definitely didn't ask for the passports of all those living in the sponsor house over 18 either so hopefully that's another error in the letter. It's all so ridiculous though.

My MP forwarded me the response she got from the Home Office today - it was a generic, 'we're getting so many enquiries we can't respond to individuals. We're doing the best we can, don't chase us up again as it'll just slow us down more'. Excellent!

The Home Office are beyond incompetent...they have to be the worst department ever ...

Ffs.
Are there not human beings running this department?

They wouldn't have to answer thousands of individual enquiries if they'd do something as simple as clarify whether that letter was correct or not on their website and fix the portal to allow you to add documents if it is needed. I told the help desk women she should stop trying to escalate every camera caller's problem and tell the managers what was going wrong!

Very true Firefliess.

And if they would only take the time to make sure all the staff were on the same page with certain key questions they could have saved hours of everyone’s time.

All they need to do is go onto Twitter or a couple of the Facebook groups - or indeed have a 5 minute chat to some of the charities supporting the process- and they will see the same themes coming up that everyone is angsting over because some people have been told one thing and some another.

Sorry to interrupt your thread. Can I just drop this link for anyone who has managed to get through the process and will be having children staying with them. (I think it is existing customers only.)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4525390-For-those-hosting-Ukraine-Refugees

I hope it is helpful to somebody.

I am beginning to think there is a less than 50% chance they will ever get here.
I find it worrying that no visas appear to have been issued today. It looks very much like they are NOT trying to sort this out.

Following x

I worry it's dropped out of the headlines. And it's only with sustained pressure that they will fix it. I want robust processes for safeguarding but local authorities don't seem to be the bottleneck (at least here - council have checked the house and are doing the DBS). I don't know why the visa processing can't be done at the border or on arrival for those with passports, at least. So what if there are queues? You arrive, you meet your sponsor, you both go and queue together to get the visa sorted. I've arrived in plenty of countries where I've applied for a visa on arrival. And that takes the pressure off the system for those without passports.
I'm sure there are problems with that plan but are they really insurmountable?

I read that the family scheme is being massively prioritised , I can't remember the stats but around 90% of visas issued are under the family scheme. I'm on a few host FB groups and there are people saying they got visas through yesterday.

Anyone else hoped Johnson would come back from meeting Zelensky and announce that he had dropped the requirement for pre entry visas?

One of our three Ukrainian guests arrived yesterday. The other two are still waiting for visa's but are safe in the west of Ukraine so not so desperate as some.
I filled all three visa applications in on the afternoon of 18th March through the Government 'Rooms For Ukraine' scheme, so I'm not sure why there is such a disparity with the timing of them getting their visas.
The one who has arrived has said that she was contacted by the Sheffield visa office and the other two Croydon (or vice versa) so maybe some visa centres are more 'on it' than others.
(As an aside for those who may be feeling apprehensive about taking people into their homes our experience has been very positive so far. I was very concerned about taking possibly traumatised strangers in but decided it was a risk we had to take under the circumstances. We're lucky in as far as she got out of Kyiv as soon as Russia invaded and hasn't therefore had direct experience of the atrocities and bombing - but has friends and family she's worried about of course. Obviously it's only day 2 of potentially 6 month+ of living together, & I'd rather have the house to ourselves, but so far I'm not regretting our decision to take in refugees.)

Are there particular websites or Facebook groups where you can find a family?

Moblife, I joined this Facebook group and was private messaged by a girl in her early 20's she and two friends were looking to get out of Kyiv. I was happy to accept them because it was just the type of request you wouldn't want to fall into the wrong hands!

It's nice to hear about others who have had visas come through and managed to get here. I can't for the life of me see why they can't travel to the UK as soon as they have the application completed, which means they have somewhere to stay and settle in here while they wait for the visa to be processed.