On February 24, 2022 the Home Office for Ukrainian nationals announced visa concessions. These visa concessions are applicable on temporary schemes and visitor visas. In short, they are applicable only on valid visas for instance seasonal worker visas would not have to return to their state in order to apply for other visa categories in fact they will be allowed to apply for other categories from inside the United Kingdom. It means that the Ukrainian visitors on temporary scheme visas or visitor visas can apply for a spouse visa or family visa without going back to their home country.
Following are the lists of the concessions announced by the Home Office:
- In the United Kingdom, Ukrainian nationals that are on an existing points-based system route can extend their leave
- Without leaving UK, Ukrainian nationals that are on a visitor visa can switch their visitor visa into a points-based system immigration route
- Ukrainian nationals that are on a visit visa can apply for a family route for additional leave and they would not have to meet the immigration status requirement, provided they do meet the requirements significantly for the leave that is based on exceptional circumstances
- The leave of Ukrainian nationals that are living in the UK on their seasonal visa would be extended to 31 December 2022
- Ukrainian nationals that have temporary pork butcher jobs/HGV will also have their leave extended to 31 December 2022
- Ukrainian nationals in temporary jobs can also apply for skilled worker route
UKRAINIAN NATIONAL’S PRESENT CONDITION
Due to the chaos that is going on in Ukraine most of the UK consular activities are suspended. To deal with British nationals and their dependents in Ukraine, the consulate in Lviv is at work. British nationals and their dependents can also use UK consular services in Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia, neighbouring states of Ukraine. Since the biometric centres in the country are closed there is no clarification from the Home Office on the fate of those citizens who applied for UK visas or were in the process of applying for UK visas.
These visa exemptions have now been updated. Ukrainian citizens can apply for the visa from the visa application centres that are working in the neighbouring states and avail of these visa exemptions.
