Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral Statement of 1 March 2022, Official Report, column 915, whether the (a) aunts and uncles and (b) unaccompanied nieces and nephews of people living in the UK are eligible to come to the UK from Ukraine via a family migration visa.

As set out in the Home Secretary’s statement to the House on 1 March, a fee free, bespoke Ukraine Family Scheme has been introduced. The route allows both the immediate family members (spouse, civil partner, durable partner, minor children) and extended family members (parent, grandparent, adult children, grandchildren, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, in laws and their immediate family) to join their relatives in the UK. The UK-based sponsoring relative must be a British citizen, a person who is present and settled in the UK (including those with settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme), a person in the UK with refugee leave or with humanitarian protection or an EEA or Swiss national in the UK with limited leave under Appendix EU (pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme). This route was launched on 4 March.

People in the UK on work study or visit visas, who have not acquired settled status will not be permitted to sponsor a relative under the Ukraine Family Scheme. However, on 18 March the Government launched the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, which enables individuals, charities, community groups and businesses to volunteer accommodation and provide a route to safety for Ukrainians, and their immediate family members, forced to escape their homeland. Ukrainian nationals resident in the UK with at least six months’ leave can qualify to sponsor under this scheme if they are able to offer suitable accommodation and pass security checks. Further information about the Homes for Ukraine Scheme has been published here:

https://homesforukraine.campaign.gov.uk/

Ukrainian nationals in the UK on visit visas will be able to sponsor under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, if they extend their stay under the new Ukraine Extension Scheme, which was announced on 29 March 2022. This scheme will launch on 3 May 2022 and will allow Ukrainian nationals and their partners or children who had leave to remain in the UK on 18 March 2022, or whose right to remain has expired since 1 January 2022, to apply to extend their stay in the UK for a period of three years. Further information on the scheme can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/support-for-family-members-of-british-nationals-in-ukraine-and-ukrainian-nationals-in-ukraine-and-the-uk#if-youre-ukrainian-and-are-already-in-the-uk

We are setting no limit on the numbers of people who can come here. We will be glad to welcome as many Ukrainians as wish to come.