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 think you are right Countess.

I do have a tendency to overthink things, and I am viewing this like I would if it were my kids, but it isn't. I guess the important thing is that the family's basic needs are met when they get here. Not that they get a 5* experience.

Y - it’s not that they don’t deserve the best possible experience or that we don’t want them to but we are having to do everything very fast here and with communication difficulties of several sorts, so it’s important to prioritise a bit. If it becomes clear in the future that being at a different school is very important to their welfare then at that point you fight tooth and nail. But for now it’s not worth getting too hung up on.

Just picked out two up from the airport. All seems ok. The daughter's English isn't bad at all - better than her mum's. We've shown them the two rooms for them to have, but they're choosing tonight to both share a bed.

Shiloh - I tried the paid helpline this morning. I was in the queue for an hour, then when I finally got to a person she couldn’t help me. She said I needed an application number, which I don’t have. After hanging up I got a message from Vodafone saying that call had cost me ££15! Argh.

Tulip - that’s so annoying about schools. I thought we were going to have a similar situation in that our nearest school is a short walk away, but over the county border (and oversubscribed) so the council made noises about sending her to one that’s within county but a bus ride away. In the event though, the daughter is studying remotely instead. She’s doing GCSE equivalent though so a bit different.

Oh that sounds awful with the biometrics helpline @VenusClapTrap . I've had a nightmare trying to get appointments booked for the biometrics today - if anyone hasn't yet done it do NOT try to do two applications using the same email address. You won't be able to get back into the second one to actually book the appointment as it demands a 16 digit number which they haven't sent you. I redid the second one with my own email address but then could only book an appointment on a different day. The nearest option seems to be an hour away from us, so really don't want them to have to go twice over. Grrrr. Does anyone know if you can just create a new application with a new email address and then somehow cancel the first one?

I invited local guests and hosts round for tea and cake today and it was really nice. Lots of phone numbers exchanged and teenagers who had been starved of teenage company making friends.

Bit of a weird phase now where we’ve signed up for loads of things and filled in loads of forms and are just waiting for things to arrive so we can do more things: NHS numbers from doctors’ registration so we can arrange covid jabs, bank accounts, school places….

Fireyflies - I don’t know if you can cancel and start again, sorry. We finally managed to do ours and book appointments, but it was epic. Turns out you have to use the original visa application number and email address from when you first applied for them to come over. That was a lightbulb moment.

Countess - that sounds lovely that you had them all over for cake. I will try to organise something similar now that I’ve finished with Covid. My lady has started her new job today though so it might have to wait for the weekend. She was so pleased to start work! I hope it goes well for her. Her employer’s wife is Polish so is helping with the language, which is brilliant.

That’s great about the Polish employer’s wife Venus. Imo it’s not just about language, it’s the commonality of culture and historical experience. We all went out with some Belorusian friends yesterday and there was a lot of common ground (as well as the fact that the little kids could chatter away in Russian).

Oh no Venus I'm sorry that my advice led to you getting a £15 helpline charge! I phoned the first time from my office landline (so I hope my work don't get charged as they'll ask questions about that!). The second time I'm pretty sure I rang from my mobile but didn't get any notification afterwards about the cost and I'm not sure I have had that mobile bill yet. 0300 numbers are charged at the same rate as 01 and 02 numbers on mobiles but I guess my calls in total lasted under 10 minutes whereas because you were on hold for a long time waiting to speak to a human, it racked up. And then after all that, they couldn't even help you - again, sorry!

The rest of you with your families here all sound like things are ticking along, mostly smoothly (except for the BRP situation for Venus). I hope to join you all in that phase shortly as the mum has today physically got her passport in her hands once more, and received her visa - 40 days after attending the VAC to submit her biometrics! She's now trying to decide whether to travel back into Ukraine to Odessa one last time before coming here - her son is desperate to see his dad and she would like to see him and say goodbye to all of her friends and family but she knows it's very dangerous to cross the border, train stations have been attacked plus Odessa has had a few attacks itself.

Oh don’t worry Shiloh. I’m just glad we got there in the end! The earliest appointment was not until 4th June though so we’ve got a bit of a wait.

That’s such a difficult decision for your family about going back to say goodbye. What a horrible position to be in. These poor people are going through such a lot. It’s hard to get your head round.

We just had our home check this morning. Our local authority has farmed it out to the fire service, so they were far more interested in smoke alarms and what time of day we use the washing machine than anything else. And I have to say, I’ve never been one to drool over firemen generally as not my thing at all, but dear Lord…. <fans self> it was very hard to concentrate on the questions we were being asked 😅. After they’d left, Dh raised an eyebrow and muttered something about cliches and “Bet he’s on their calendar” 😂

We've now got them both a biometrics appointment booked but a week apart and in two separate cities 1-1.5 hours travel away. I'm going to drive to the first appointment on Friday and then if it goes ok hopefully they'll be ok without me for the second one (which they both have to go to as it's for the daughter who's under 18, but daughter speaks better English) and will combine that with a bit of sightseeing trip as it's on a Sunday. They seem to think they need the biometrics done in order to get NI numbers which they need in order to work. Appointments were filling up fast at the weekend.

I've been making the most of my half day leave from with today. We went in to the council offices today where they asked a few questions, gave them incorrect information about education and UC applications and then gave them £200 each in cash, which was well received. Followed by trip to Primark to buy summer shoes and guided tour of the charity shops which they'd heard good things about. DH is taking them to register at the GP's this afternoon. The daughter has braces so is going to need to register with a dentist soon - I'm hoping I can get her an NHS appointment before she turns 18 in August, as it's impossible to get NHS dentists for adults where I live.

They seem to think they need the biometrics done in order to get NI numbers

I still haven’t been able to establish if the BRP must be in place before they can apply for NI numbers. Even on official guidance it says there “may” be an NI number on the BRP. It’s clear as mud.

My lady already has one from a previous working trip to the U.K., but her daughter doesn’t and she’s been offered work so is very anxious to get it sorted. Now that her mum is going to work, she doesn’t come out of her room much and I’m a bit worried about her. I’ve got her a little job puppy sitting for a couple of hours today for cash in hand which at least will get her out of the house for a bit.

Yes we are coming up against the NI number issue. I've reassured my guest she can start work without one but she is very upset that she hasn't got one yet. She's applied for UC and her BRP and so I'm confident one will appear but I think it has become "the thing" she's fixed on as a substitute for all the other horrible stuff that has happened to her in the last three months or so.

Still waiting for our visas. It's been 3 weeks + 2 days now. Some dreadful stories on FB of people who have been waiting much longer but also hearing about recent applications being approved really quickly and wondering what to do.

Could be due to fact that there are young kids involved & the mum's name is different?

Just finding it really stressful now - although as DH pointed out. it's much worse for our guests.

Technically not (from the legal perspective), but you won't be able to register for one without a BRP. There's no NI number on the BRP card, it is a separate process.
They can start working without an NI number though, and provide it later.

You can drive yourself mad trying to find a logical reason why others have been processed and yours haven’t but it’s very random. It won’t be the names being different as they don’t process them together. Just keep chasing. Do you have any indication of where they are in the process now?

Waiting for visas was by far the hardest bit. It gets easier.

Thanks Forin. The employer has said she can’t start till she has the NI number. I’ll try gently pointing out she can legally start, but don’t want to risk annoying them. They’ve been incredibly kind and accommodating so far with her mum and she’s delighted to be working there. They’ve told the daughter she can do bits of babysitting and housekeeping for them for cash in the interim, if she wants to, while she waits for the NI number.

Do you have any indication of where they are in the process now?

Nope. There is apparently no way to find out. I emailed my council yesterday and haven't heard yet, will try MP next but we have clashed in the past on ideological issues so not sure how helpful it will be.

Do try your mp. They have been very variable on this but after all it is their job to help all their constituents no matter what their political beliefs and tbh they mostly just pass it on to a caseworker to deal with so it’s not like they will need to engage with you directly.

I emailed them this morning. (Phone just goes through to voicemail). Let's see what happens!

MP has been very efficient. Tells me visas have been issued for all 3, and letters with permissions to travel for 2 of them. But the Mum hasn't received them, although the email address is correct. What next I wonder?

Can the MP take this up as an issue @Tulipomania ? It's not an uncommon problem for the letters to take a long time and I know of someone else where they've failed to arrive. The visa application form asks for alternative contact emails but doesn't use them. I presume you've asked the woman to check her spam, etc? As a last resort I believe if they go to Paris the officials there can see that a visa has been granted and will allow travel, even without the PTT. I'm not sure exactly where in Paris, but my neighbour is going there at the weekend with the Ukrainian she's sponsoring to get him here. It really shouldn't have to come to that though.

Yes, I've requested escalation through the helpline but I think I'm going to ask the MP to do it too as he's been pretty effective.

Found a space at a nursery for the little one a short walk from our house, so feeling quite pleased about things today.

Getting very frustrated waiting for primary school to get back to me, now the daughter has her school place officially. They have y7 SATS this week so I get that they are busy but wouldn’t you think getting her in would be a priority?