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.

I saw that. Well done PetPlan. I thought it was meant to be very difficult to bring animals into the UK but I have heard of several cases now where the pet has permission to travel but the human hasn’t.

I had an email from my MP (He has been emailing daily with updates without me having to chase him, I will never vote Conservative as long as I left it on an individual level I think he's quite a decent bloke). Apparently we are reaching the top of the queue and our Visa is in the final stages of checks being carried out... No timescale was given and in reality I don't know what this means, we could be waiting another fortnight, I don't know…… But previously every update has been "I'm really sorry but there is no progress", so today was a bit different.

That's great news @hassletassle. Hopefully you'll see some more progress soon. Please keep us updated.

That's really awful @TheCountessofFitzdotterel. Have you managed to find proof the biometric info was submitted? My understanding was the VAC appointment wouldn't have gone ahead without it. I hope we don't find ourselves in this position with the mum's biometric documents that she attended the VAC for.

On a slightly more positive note, we've had an email late today re the son's application saying: "
Thank you for submitting an online application for the Ukraine Scheme which has been received at the UK Decision Making Centre. Your application is currently being prepared for consideration by an Entry Clearance Officer.

Those applying for the Ukraine Scheme from overseas (outside of the United Kingdom) and who are in possession of a valid Ukrainian passport which can be used for international travel, will no longer be required to attend a visa application centre to submit their biometric information.

You have indicated in your application that you hold a valid Ukrainian passport, and our records show you have already uploaded a copy of this document.

You do not have to book or attend an appointment a visa application centre. We will contact you once your application has been processed and send you a permission letter to travel to the United Kingdom. Please continue to check your emails for updates.

You should not travel until you have received a permission letter to travel to the UK.

Kind regards"

So I've at least finally got reassurance that a) his application hasn't been overlooked (submitted 26 March) and b) they do actually have the uploaded documents even though when I log into their application to check progress, it suggests they haven't!

I don't know whether my emailing that new address which OP posted late last night has had any bearing on us suddenly getting this update. It seems like a standard text email so perhaps not.

Yes we had proof - for each of the 5 applications he had an email which said, ‘You have attended a visa application centre to submit your biometric information and any supporting documents you presented have now been uploaded to our system. You do not need to provide any further documents unless we contact you.’

Someone on a FB group has noticed that the HO have changed some wording on the Ukraine scheme website, to say that they are now prioritising Homes for Ukraine scheme applications over Family Scheme ones... I haven't sought this out to verify yet.

Countess, how distressing for them. I really hope you get good news soon.
Shiloh sorry to be the bearer of bad news. We got that email three days after submitting the application and are still waiting 13 days later. I can't fathom why things happen in such an odd order for everyone or what it all means.

@LaurelGrove

Countess, how distressing for them. I really hope you get good news soon. Shiloh sorry to be the bearer of bad news. We got that email three days after submitting the application and are still waiting 13 days later. I can't fathom why things happen in such an odd order for everyone or what it all means.

Oh no!

I am in despair. How dare they set up a system that cannot cope with what is not a particularly large number of applications (so far)? How dare Harrington go on the news shows 10 days ago and talk about a 48 hour turnaround? How dare they treat traumatized children as presumed terrorists? How dare they fail to have any functioning system for checking progress or providing transparent updates?
I know the answer to all these questions. The Home Office is both incompetent and malicious and Patel does not deserve to have a job. How can she look at herself in the mirror and think this is acceptable.

I hope this brings the issue of forced migration and asylum for people from all conflict zones (and from non conflict zones - they aren't all leaving wars behind) to the public's attention and we realise the horror of the legislation going through parliament at the moment, and let this bunch of lying self-serving venal politicians know what we think of them.

I am furious. Really angry, in a way that I never knew I could be.

@LaurelGrove

you have hit the nail on the head, it is horrendous and cruel, a combination of shambolic and intentional I think. I agree with everything you say and I'm also very very angry. I just don't know what to do with this range?!

The mum I am sponsoring had to make a 6 hour round trip to have biometrics taken for her seven-year-old!

A bit of positive news today. My guest's sister's visa has just come through. She's staying with someone local to me who filled in the application the same day as us (27th) so I'm hoping ours comes through soon too.

We also submitted on 27th. That is good news.
In (not good) news: www.politicshome.com/news/article/home-office-tells-mps-to-stop-chasing-urgent-ukrainian-visa-cases-as-they-stop-providing-updates
WTF. Obviously the way to improve things is to remove the one available route we had to check up. I despise these people. How can anyone look at themselves in the mirror knowing they are complicit in this? Or indeed in the other horror show immigration schemes they've presided over. Don't get me started on immigration detention.

I'm feeling pretty annoyed and despondent as a lady in our village who applied 10 days ago and got three visas through today! We are on day 21 I think… Last email from the MP said there was no progress since yesterday. why ?!! I'm feeling like I can't really do this anymore! I mean, I will, I will keep going… I don't think I've been in this frustrating, stupefying and unfair a situation for a very very long time.

hassletassle I am in the same situation as you. We applied on 19th March and still waiting while others in my area who applied later have got 4 visas for their guests! Processing in date order is a complete lie. I suspect they have dished out blocks of applications to different offices and some offices are working faster than others. I think my guests application is gathering dust on someone's desk who has gone off on a lovely Easter holiday 😡

@ChiaraRimini yup, I agree with everything you have said. It's all lies and smoke and mirrors and it's absolutely disgusting.

I have been feeling very despondent too. And have spent far too much time refreshing Twitter and Facebook in the hope of some new information. None of it is ever good, when it comes.
But as I cycled home from work, I realised that it's not helping and it is actually detracting from my ability to support my guest. We are going to need lots of energy and fight in the weeks and months ahead to help the new arrivals navigate life here, so I'm going to do the "put your own oxygen mask on first" thing for a little while and try to regroup and not fret so I can pick up the battle afresh shortly.

That's a good idea, @LaurelGrove , I have my house inspection tomorrow so I willSpend a couple of hours doing a bit of extra cleaning and tidying, but after that I'm really going to look after myself. I don't think any of the chasing emails I'm doing are making any difference. My sponsee has also gone a bit quiet so maybe having second thoughts after all this waiting, I really don't know!

I think once you've done all you can to get the visa and been honest with your guest that it's a new scheme and we don't know any more than they do how long it'll take, then you do just have to be patient. If they choose to give up and go somewhere else instead they can do that, but that's their call to make not ours. Most of us have done the visa applications for them, which I think tends to make you feel a bit responsible for it. But we're not responsible for hire long it takes - the government is. And the Ukrainian guests do know that. The right thing to do is clearly to wait for the visa as long as they want us to. They are in shit situation currently, but they're also most of them needing a medium to long term place to live. We can still offer them that.

I've just had an appointment for my DBS check with the council so that's something. Still waiting for any news on visa. Need to step away from Facebook, all the posts from people happily announcing their guests arrivals are getting me down..

No response to the email I sent to the HOUkraine email address that was shared here, despite getting an auto-reply promising a 48 hour turnaround for a response.

I have just emailed my MP. Again. She's been really disappointing, considering she's in opposition and a big supporter of anti-racism initiatives and pro a fairer immigration system. I hoped she'd be really hot on this but she sent one email to the Home Office ten days ago at my request and hasn't replied to any of my emails or calls since then.

She's said nothing publicly on the HFU scheme, as far as I can tell, despite (rightly) criticising the Rwandan farce this morning on social media. I've had three people today tell me that the Rwanda offshoring programme shows this government is deeply racist because they are letting in Ukrainians while threatening to send people of colour to Rwanda. I have been pointing out they aren't doing a very good job of letting in Ukrainians, and actually I think it's an anti-foreigner position. They are equal opportunities discriminators. They just knew in the case of Ukraine they at least had to be seen to be doing something, so came up with this fucking stupid visa scheme, hoping it would be sufficiently Byzantine that no one would see it through to the end.

And don't get me started on Patel "having worked hard on the Rwandan scheme for some time". She could start with dealing with the actual visa crisis she's failing to do anything about rather than thinking of every crueller ways to treat desperate people arriving from Syria, Afghanistan and (checks notes)...oh...Rwanda. God help you if you're a gay man from there.

I am feeling very gloomy. My MP’s assistant chasing revealed yesterday morning that the visas are supposedly granted (they found the missing biometrics I suppose?) but no emails yet sent out and there are people on Twitter who were told that a fortnight ago and still don’t have the visas. And now it’s Easter.

I was hopeful yesterday after the MP’s email. Rookie mistake.

Visas arrived today for my two

Hurrah!

Amazing @Firefliess! Do you mind me asking when you applied? 🤗