It’s now been ten days since Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely’s office told Chale resident, Pete Gosling, that the visa application for an Island-bound Ukrainian mother and child had been escalated.
Pete and his wife are sponsors for a mother and her teenage son who are still in Ukraine, but hoping to escape the war-torn country and relocate to safety on the Island (read the full background to Pete’s story).
Worrying update
News OnTheWight got in touch with Pete today (Thursday) to find out whether there was an update. Sadly the news was not good.
He told us,
“There has been nothing from the Home Office yet. Bob Seely says it has been escalated, but that was ten days ago.
“Worryingly, I have been unable to contact the mother. The last I heard from her was eight days ago, and the shelling was getting closer.”
Hope has been fading
When Pete spoke to the mother last week she was very upset because she felt that hope was fading. She believes that she won’t get her visas in time.
Pete explained,
“What do you say to a person with limited English, when nobody seems able to get the application sorted.
“All they have to do is duplicate the original visas and change the sponsors name and address.”
Seely: We must be patient
News OnTheWight wrote to the Isle of Wight MP’s office to ask whether they can put any further pressure on the Home Office to urgently approve the visas for this mother and child.
Bob Seely’s response read,
“My team is working very hard to try to expediate this application, and others, but we are dealing with a system with rules that must be adhered to and we must be patient to allow time for all necessary security checks – however frustrating that may feel sometimes.
“It is of paramount importance that constituents provide me with complete and correct information when they first make contact to avoid unnecessary delays.
“This particular application has been escalated and was chased up again yesterday. Unfortunately, no timescale can be given where security checks are concerned but my team will continue to keep Mr Gosling updated as and when there is something more to say.”
Many still waiting
The Government announced three weeks ago that 88,000 visas have been issued through Homes for Ukraine scheme, but the figure we don’t hear is the number of Ukrainians still waiting for visa.
Pete’s Ukrainian mother is just one of many similar stories we hear about.
Article edit
5.10pm 14th Jul 2022 – Comment from BS added
Image: tina hartung under CC BY 2.0
