An Eden man trying to bring his wife’s Ukrainian family to the UK says the visa process is beyond a joke.
Andy Barr has been attempting to bring his wife’s grandparents, sister and her five-year-old child to the UK since they escaped war-torn Ukraine on March 8.
He said the process to obtain a visa was so tortuous, he was beginning to believe it was a deliberate ploy by the UK Government to put off bringing refugees to the country.
His family members are currently staying in Budapest after leaving Ukraine. They got to Hungary via Slovakia.
Mr Barr, who owns Barrnon in Appleby, said: “They are inside out and upside down. They are proud Ukrainians and want to go home but can’t because their home has been blown up. Imagine your mother in that position.
It’s taken me 13 hours to fill out the forms. What are people supposed to do if it’s their second language?
“We managed to get our family a visa appointment, then I got an email to say they didn’t have an appointment. Except when we checked, they did.
“The website crashes too. I can’t believe there isn’t a simple way to do this. It feels like the Government is waiting until immediate danger has passed, peace is declared and then they won’t have to let anyone into the country.”
The Ukraine family scheme allows immediate and extended family members of British nationals, people settled in the UK, and certain others resident here, to come to the country and grants people a three-year visa.
Home Office minister Kevin Foster told the home affairs committee in Parliament yesterday and told MPs that 5,500 visas had been granted under the scheme and 20,000 applications had been submitted.
Applicants have to visit a Visa Application Centre and have their photograph and fingerprints taken.
The Government has said that it will prioritise applications, but Mr Barr said it wasn’t going quickly enough for his family or the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine.
He added: “I don’t understand why they can’t use somewhere like the old Millennium Dome to process these visa applications. They’d be able to verify thousands of people at once.
“Instead, we’re having to fill out forms that are difficult to understand and wait for appointments at small Visa Application Centres. This is a war and we need to step up.”
