Hi Ada, thank you so much for these updates! Re. biometric passports, I am by no means an expert, but I and a few friends have put together a (very simple) information site about the UK government's scheme in Ukrainian, Russian and English (with relevant bits of GOV.UK translations where these are available, plus some material we've translated ourselves where the government's info is only in English). The idea behind it was that scouring news sites or the government website for info when you don't speak English and you're utterly exhausted must feel all but impossible, even if the UK is on your radar at all, which it may well not be, as you very rightly and helpfully point out! The FAQs say: "If you hold a valid Ukrainian international passport you will not need to attend a Visa Application Centre. Children do not need a passport. If you do not hold a valid Ukrainian international passport you will need to book and attend an appointment at a visa application centre." So that's not brilliantly helpful when very few families will have every member with an international passport, as you say. A friend did tell me that Ukrainian embassies are extending expired international passports (a friend of hers in Hungary was able to do this yesterday). Another Moldova-based friend is in contact with the UK ambassador there and has asked whether internal passports and/or expired passports can be accepted. Happy to share any extra info I receive if that might be helpful to you or others. One quick thing, "visa-free" is (very sadly!) not accurate - the new scheme is still a visa application process. Lots of unknowns until the government application system goes live, which is promised today. For now, we've put all the info we've collected/translated here, and will aim to update (in all three languages, if possible) as soon as more is released: https://sites.google.com/view/ua2ukhelp/home
thank you so much for sharing this, Laura! this is a fantastic initiative, and I'll be sure to share it around with other volunteers here - it is brilliant to know about embassies extending expired passports. I'm finding it really difficult to keep up with the UK system from here, and your comment has cleared up a lot of things that I was wondering about.
Hi Ada, would you mind if I share the link to this with the staff at the school where I work. I think it is so interesting to get news from someone who is actually there, and would be useful for the teachers to explain things to our pupils. You are amazing!! Karen x
Hi Ada, thank you so much for these updates! Re. biometric passports, I am by no means an expert, but I and a few friends have put together a (very simple) information site about the UK government's scheme in Ukrainian, Russian and English (with relevant bits of GOV.UK translations where these are available, plus some material we've translated ourselves where the government's info is only in English). The idea behind it was that scouring news sites or the government website for info when you don't speak English and you're utterly exhausted must feel all but impossible, even if the UK is on your radar at all, which it may well not be, as you very rightly and helpfully point out! The FAQs say: "If you hold a valid Ukrainian international passport you will not need to attend a Visa Application Centre. Children do not need a passport. If you do not hold a valid Ukrainian international passport you will need to book and attend an appointment at a visa application centre." So that's not brilliantly helpful when very few families will have every member with an international passport, as you say. A friend did tell me that Ukrainian embassies are extending expired international passports (a friend of hers in Hungary was able to do this yesterday). Another Moldova-based friend is in contact with the UK ambassador there and has asked whether internal passports and/or expired passports can be accepted. Happy to share any extra info I receive if that might be helpful to you or others. One quick thing, "visa-free" is (very sadly!) not accurate - the new scheme is still a visa application process. Lots of unknowns until the government application system goes live, which is promised today. For now, we've put all the info we've collected/translated here, and will aim to update (in all three languages, if possible) as soon as more is released: https://sites.google.com/view/ua2ukhelp/home
thank you so much for sharing this, Laura! this is a fantastic initiative, and I'll be sure to share it around with other volunteers here - it is brilliant to know about embassies extending expired passports. I'm finding it really difficult to keep up with the UK system from here, and your comment has cleared up a lot of things that I was wondering about.
Hi Ada, would you mind if I share the link to this with the staff at the school where I work. I think it is so interesting to get news from someone who is actually there, and would be useful for the teachers to explain things to our pupils. You are amazing!! Karen x
of course!! x