I will endeavour to keep this guide up to date and correct mistakes so please message me (TG/WA: +447818445202, [email protected] in English or Russian preferably) with any suggestions. You can also comment directly on this page (either highlight text or click the 💬  Comment button at the top of the page)

<aside> âś… This guide covers: How to find a potential guest Verifying who they are Completing the visa application(s) Next steps

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The Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (aka Homes for Ukraine) is well-intentioned but hard to navigate for people who don’t have familiarity both with Ukraine and with UK bureaucracy. This guide is intended to help you make it work.

This guide isn’t about the scheme itself: for that you should review the Home Office Q&As.

Nobody involved in the creation of this page has any special knowledge or is an immigration law expert. We are working off the same published materials as everyone else, just trying to put all the information in the same place and suggest some processes and rules of thumb to work around the inadequacies in the scheme. At the risk of sounding like the Home Office, we accept no liability for losses caused by following the information on this page, including if caused by negligence.

Finding someone to sponsor

Many UK residents are heartbroken by the destruction in Ukraine and want to open their homes to Ukrainians fleeing the conflict. At the time of writing almost 80,000 have signed up to indicate they would be willing to.

Identifying someone you are happy to sponsor is somewhat difficult. Many Ukrainians speak great English, but many don’t. There are tons of Facebook groups and similar tools trying to connect sponsors with guests, but it’s hard to know how to trust people you can only communicate with haltingly.

Opora signup

Opora signup

You can create a simple profile and put it live in 5 minutes stating what you are willing to offer in terms of accommodation etc.

I suggest you include just one method of contact to avoid confusion. WhatsApp is probably the lowest-friction method and will make it easy to exchange pictures, videos etc which will help a lot further through the process.

One thing you should consider is whether you would limit yourself to providing support to a certain type of person. For instance, I have young children and think that we can more effectively offer support to others with young kids than e.g. teenagers. This is not to say that some people are more deserving than others, but just to match your ability to support to the needs of the people you are supporting.

There are tons of charities out there finding accommodation for refugees. These may be great, but using an intermediary will in all likelihood slow the process down. When days could be the difference between leaving the country and being trapped, it’s worth trying different routes. You can always sign up with a charity and in parallel offer directly.

Verifying who your guest is

After you have put your profile live, you will probably get messages from people who need help.

At this stage you may experience a momentary surge of panic. Helping is nice in the abstract, but actually running the risk of having an unknown person in your personal space? This is normal but you should persevere!

It is sensible to be cautious. I suggest you pick your guest as follows:

Know your guest

All you need to verify is: