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.

My phone memory was too small for an app but I got it sorted on some website by logging in on different devices to use their two document limit!
They weren't random people I met, they were the facilitators of the entire programme for my city, who were organising matching people, events for Ukrainians, drop in clinics for refugees, language lessons for both sides etc etc. They have an office and everything, loaned by the city, where they do people's visas for them.

My guests have arrived safely and are settling in. So nice to meet them at last.

That is absolutely ludicrous!
''What would you do if everyone has diahorrea at the same time??''
What would any family do if there are more people than available lavatories?
{Which there often are!}

A single bathroom and loo combined can be an issue, though, if someone is hogging the shower/bath or loo.

Chances of that happening are hopefully remote, but if someone was THAT desperate, a bucket would have to suffice, but mercifully haven't ever known this to happen.
The Council are being ridiculous.

That's great to hear 🙂Ours have finally decided to come on Friday, leaving behind the family friend (18 year old) who's stuck in Poland still waiting for his visa (applied for on 27th) I think they're quite worried about him, but waiting for him isn't going to speed up his visa at all. His host has been chasing via MP and everything but still no visa for him.

I'm glad to have a date when ours will be arriving though. Can plan a bit more now.

And advice from those who're already hosting on how to help them settle in over the first week or two?

27th March that should have said

Fireyflies, I've got a list of practical things we figured out which I will happily post if helps - bank accounts etc.

In terms of welcoming, we put together a welcome pack with emergency items and set up her room so she didn't have to leave it if she didn't want to apart from meals. I cleared and labeled a cupboard and fridge shelf.

Our list:
Slippers (really appreciated - we don't wear shoes in the house but apparently indoor shoes are very normal in Ukraine)
PJs
Dressing gown
Toiletries
Hair dryer
Hoodie
Some underwear (only because she said she didn't have enough, I'd not have bought them if i hadn't known that)
Kettle with tea, coffee, hot chocolate
An adaptor
Umbrella
Pre loaded Oyster card
A welcome guide to the house with wifi password, info on appliances etc

I also borrowed a laptop from a neighbour so she can work and study.

The first few days were very busy. I took a day off work to show her round and help with forms etc. Lots of questions to answer. After a week of admin and excitement, we are now moving into a new phase which I think she will find much harder - the reality is kicking in and there are tears and real sadness about what has been lost. So I'd make sure you have plenty of emotional energy and support for yourself as well as for your guests, as it's hard for you as a host.

Arrivals
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Don't rely on the welcome desk at whichever airport you end up going to being any use to you. The one at Luton had a leaflet in Ukrainian about medical services and that was it. I believe some other sites are a lot more helpful - there was talk of toiletry bags, help with onward travel etc. The free travel for 48 hours message doesn't seem to have percolated through the UK transport network so be prepared to explain yourselves at each stage of the journey.
*

Phone cards*

Three will give you a SIM card with a month's worth of data, texts and calls (which are already free to Ukraine).

Vodafone are doing a six month SIM offer but you have to request it via a charity. You can ask via the Red Cross, who I believe are also offering a £50 payment to new arrivals. You have to call 0808 1963651 and then it is option 3 within the first two weeks of them arriving.
*
Payment on arrival*

I would not rely on this arriving promptly. Our council delivered a preloaded debit card four days after arrival but it didn't work and we had to get a new one. I think some councils are just giving people cash, and others are giving supermarket vouchers.
*
Bank accounts*

NatWest have made it really easy but you do have to go in person to a branch and also there is a bit of a wait time as they've had a lot of applications.
We went with Monzo in the end which meant downloading the app and working through it. Took about ten minutes, and was an absolute dream - no proof of address needed, we did it all online and the debit card arrived the next day. For anyone comfortable with digital banking I'd recommend that route. *But if you want to make cash deposits there's a £1 fee, so I said if she had cash she can give it to me and I will make a transfer from my account to her.

Universal credit*

The form was simple enough to complete. We went through it together - https://www.gov.uk/universal-creditit*_. I think it is usually followed by an invitation to an appointment at a job centre, but that hasn't materialised yet. Worth doing this quickly as it can take up to five weeks for the first payment to be made which is a long time for them to be without cash. It should also trigger the NI number they will need for work.
*
BRP*

Worth doing this quickly as appointments seem fairly scarce. You are able to request a translator. The form was fine to complete but she needed my help. Don't worry about the massive fee that pops up at the end, that gets removed when you submit the application.
*
GP*

I went in to our local GP and picked up the registration forms, which we filled in at home. They could not have been nicer. No need for proof of address or anything tricky although the forms were long and complex.
*
Language classes*

Apparently the council should be able to help with these, though we've not heard anything yet. And further education colleges offering ESOL courses should also offer them free for people eligible for Universal Credit. *

Translating*
*
Our guest's English is pretty good, but we've been doing well with the SayHi app which is useful for those times when we can't make ourselves understood. Free to use, you just pick the language you are going to speak in, and the language you want to translate into, and hit go. She says it is better at Russian than Ukrainian.

Urgh, ignore the weird formatting in that message. Sorry!

Am I the only one still waiting for visas ? Applied 24/3.

Apparently the other main banks have got organised now so it’s not just Nat West as it was at first.

Thanks @LaurelGrove That's really helpful. (What's BRP though?) Our guest is in a somewhat unusual situation of still having a Ukraine-based job which she can do working from home. So as long as that continues I'm assuming she may not need to claim benefits. Her daughter is a student and going to carry on with Ukraine based studying from home. Though I guess she may want/need to get a part time job as well so we need to figure out how to get her an NI number. We found the videophone SIM offer and have applied for it though it said it could take up to three weeks to arrive, which is a bit slow. Thanks for the suggestion of Monzo bank - I think ours are pretty tech competent so we'll probably go with that :)

BRP is biometric residence permit which they need to get to extend their visa from the initial six months to the full three years. They also need it if they want to leave the country - they can't come back in with the six month stamp.
The BRP too should trigger an NI number I believe or you can apply for one online via gov.uk

Fireyflies, my guest is also still working on his normal job- he’s a university lecturer in Kyiv and has already delivered two classes online this morning. It means all the new arrival admin stuff has to be fitted in around his professional responsibilities!
His students are currently scattered around Ukraine, some in safer areas and some in bomb shelters.

I need to make sure the council realise this and don’t spend ages talking to him about benefits. I am so far finding the hardest thing is when we keep talking at cross purposes eg he has to go to a visa centre to do his own biometrics but the others just need to pick up documentation at the Post Office because they already did biometrics in Poland, and I didn’t realise about the Post Office and thought he was talking about doing his own there as that is a service post offices used to offer but haven’t since last year…

With spectacular timing, I have gone down with covid just as my guests arrive. Dh was supposed to be going away on a cycling holiday tomorrow; he has had to cancel as now it will fall to him to look after them for the next five days and take them to the places they need taking to! I did manage to find them an alternative place for them to stay for a few days, but they’ve declined that and say they are relaxed about covid and not bothered.

I just can’t believe the timing. I’ve gone two years without catching bloody covid, even when my whole family had it in the same house. 🤦‍♀️

That's great news @TheCountessofFitzdotterel I hope they settle in well and it's not too much of a shock to the system for them or you.

No @hassletassle , we're still waiting for mum's visa. Son's arrived on 28.04.22 after applying on 26 March. Mum attended VAC on 30 March, heard nothing since. She cancelled her visa to try and get her passport but has cancelled the cancellation request now her son's visa has come through. I suspect if it doesn't come soon though, she's going to cancel the cancellation of her original cancellation, as she's really lost faith in the UK visa system.

What bad timing @VenusClapTrap . DH caught it a few weeks ago and I was hoping the visas didn't come through too quickly to avoid being in that situation. I think you're most infectious around the time you first show symptoms, so hopefully less so in a few days. I managed not too catch it off DH despite sharing a bed with him when he was coming down with it. Guess your DH will have to step up and look after them for the first few days though.

Wading through the admin swamp. Not the funnest activity in the world but way less bad than chasing visas.

Yes currently wading through admin here too. My guests have decided they don’t care about covid and have resisted all my attempts to isolate from them. I guess in the face of your home being bombed, a virus is small beans. They are currently making a cake - smells amazing. Really nice people. All communication done through Google translate but it works well enough.

I phoned our local council this morning to see if the status of the applications had changed and they can see son's visa is now approved (we got the official email and PTT on Thurs 28 April) AND mum's visa is also now showing as approved - it was still pending when we last checked on Friday afternoon. We have not had anything at all from the Home Office to say mum's visa is approved but I am taking this as a good sign. Mum can't travel though until her passport (presumably with the visa in it) is returned to her at the VAC centre she attended.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel I think one of your guests attended a VAC from memory? If so - and to anyone else who has had this experience - please can you let me know how many days was it, from getting the email re visa approved to getting confirmation the documents could be collected from the VAC? Also, did the VAC retain your passports or were your guests children so passport-less when they applied?

All visas have been submitted as of last Friday night. Had two of three emails to say they've been sent to the decision maker. Not sure what happened to the third! Just a waiting game now.

It was 6 and 7 days between finding out they were all approved and getting the emails.

The kids didn’t have passports but I think they retained the Uzbek mum’s .

We had a productive admin morning. We fixed our appointment for council lady to come and make sure everyone is ok, guest made his biometric appointment and got through to the Red Cross (after half an hour on hold) to order free sims, I organised a visit to nursery, I invited all the Ukrainians and hosts in the area to tea at the weekend, we went to the doctor and registered everyone and then to the NatWest to set up bank accounts. I am a bit emotional about how lovely they were at the bank. I have heard this about other branches of NatWest too.

(And then I went to my writing group in the afternoon and am really glad I did- it would have been so easy to martyrishly cancel it rather than say ‘right, I am out in the afternoon so we have to do everything this morning.’)

Well done! Fingers crossed you get one of those effortless turnarounds in a few days!

Thanks @TheCountessofFitzdotterel. Sorry to be a pain but can I double check do you mean:
a) Between you finding out they'd been approved (e.g. via MP or Council perhaps) and getting the email from Home Office confirming they'd been approved it was 6-7 days [and if it was a), how long did it then take to get the email confirming documents were ready to pick up from the VAC for Uzbek mum?]
or
b) Between getting the email of approval and then collecting the documents (including Uzbek mum's passport retrieval presumably?) it was 6-7 days?

I know it's probably pointless me asking you these questions as one person's length of time does not mean it will be the same for my guests but I'm grasping at anything I can, in the hope of having some kind of indication as to how much longer it will be!

I hope that your guests are settling in and you/your family are getting used to having people staying with you? Sometimes it feels like getting all the visas and getting them here is the end of it all when really that's just the beginning.

There wasn’t an official email of approval, I just found out via the MP. The first you hear directly from the Home Office is the notification that you can go and pick the visas up.
So when I say 6 and 7 days this is from when I found out rather than the actual date of approval which might have been a few days earlier.