Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason third country citizens resident in Ukraine with family members in the UK were excluded from the Ukraine Family Visa scheme.

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.

Applicants to the scheme must be Ukrainian nationals unless they are applying as part of a family group where their immediate family member, who is a Ukrainian national, qualifies under this scheme. In this circumstance non-Ukrainian nationals will also qualify under the Ukraine Family Scheme.

Third country nationals who are not part of a family group with a Ukrainian national would normally be expected to return to their country of nationality. However, each case will be judged on merit taking into account the individual circumstances of the case.