Home truths ‘Disgusting and disgraceful’ UK visa snags

A British man who fled war-torn Odesa has told how he abandoned hopes of securing a UK visa for his Ukrainian bride after they were told they needed to provide her childhood vaccination certificate against tuberculosis.

The man, known only as Jeremy, said the demands for refugee entry to Britain are “disgusting and a disgrace”.

Unable to fill in the long and detailed form or upload various documents required by the Home Office, including the vaccination certificate, the couple gave up and travelled to Spain.

“I’ve been a businessman all my life and voted Conservative, but never again,” Jeremy told The Daily Telegraph from Málaga.

Originally from the English south coast, he had lived in Ukraine for 15 years until he was forced by the conflict to leave. The couple had returned to their home in Odesa on Feb 22 from a honeymoon in the Maldives but two nights later were woken at 5.30am by “three massive explosions” as the invasion began.

They paid “a few hundred quid” for a lift out of Odesa and went to Vinnytsia in the west. But when air-raid sirens sonded there, too, they crossed into Moldova from where they went to Romania and flew on to Madrid.

They have two companies and three properties in Ukraine, all of which they fear they may lose.

“We left Ukraine with two suitcases ... we left the cat. Everything we’ve been working for over the past 15 years is probably going to disappear,” he said. “We’ve got nowhere to live, and we just want to be able to work and get on with our lives.”

During the journey, he had tried to complete the UK visa form, which included health and financial details. “The sheer inflexibility of this crap system has made me furious,” he said. “It’s disgusting and disgraceful that people fleeing war have to go through this nonsense. This has not been thought through.”

Jeremy said he rang the UK helpline, but no advice was available on whether the application would be dealt with in less time than the usual eight weeks.

“All the time you’re reading at the bottom of each of the 40 pages in the form ‘Do not travel to the UK without a valid visa’. We’re refugees. We left because we were going to be killed. Poland has given my wife’s sister residency.”

He said Spain may prove a better bet for his wife, as it has set up an express residency scheme for Ukrainians, allowing them to work and access services. “She’s already learning Spanish, bless her. The problem is that I am only allowed to spend 90 consecutive days in Spain because of Brexit.”