A Ukrainian lady was advised by the House Workplace to depart Scotland and return to her disaster hit homeland to use for a UK partner visa - simply days earlier than Russia invaded.
Natalya Fisher is now desperately making an attempt to flee the struggle and return residence to her husband Peter in Boddam, Aberdeenshire.
Whereas planning an exit route, she has joined household and different residents in making Molotov cocktails in her residence metropolis of Dnipro to repel the Russian invasion.
Natalya yesterday despatched Peter a heart-rending textual content fearing for her life, saying: “Simply in case, I’ll inform you proper now that I like you and assembly you is the perfect factor that occurred in my life.”
Peter, 50, advised the Report: “Our plan was at all times for Natalya to get a partner visa after her customer visa ran out however that prices £3,300 and we had been saving up.
“However we obtained a letter from UK Visas and Immigration on the seventeenth of February that advised us Natalya would quickly be thought of as an unlawful alien, from April 28, when an extension to her customer visa ran out.
“We pleaded to use for a partner visa from our residence in Boddam however they had been fairly insistent that, if planes had been nonetheless stepping into Ukraine, she would solely be capable to apply from there.
“In addition they made it clear that if she overstayed that it might be detrimental to future visa purposes.
“So we had Boris Johnson on one hand telling us Russia was on the point of invasion and the immigration providers telling us we needed to recover from there or we’d be jeopardising future purposes. It was upsetting and complicated.”
He added: “The way in which we each noticed it was like everybody else - that Putin was plotting one thing however that he wouldn't really invade.
“We made an enormous mistake, as he did invade - simply two days after Natalya obtained there - and it has been dwelling hell since then.
“She was sending me again photographs of individuals in Dnipro making petrol bombs, together with her family. That was not the kind of replace on her journey that I had foreseen.”
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Within the final two days Natalya, 38, has travelled to gridlocked Lviv and final night time she was looking for to succeed in the Hungarian border to plot a passage again to her residence within the tiny village of Boddam, close to Peterhead.
Peter, a driver and fitter for Autoglass, and Natalya met through on-line courting company Worldwide Cupid in July 2020.
They linked instantly, had romantic conferences in Turkey, Ukraine and the UK and had been engaged at Beachy Head, in Sussex, seven months later.
They married in Odessa in June final yr and she or he has stayed in Boddam on a customer visa since Christmas, as they saved for the £3,300 wanted for a full partner visa.
Peter mentioned: "Our determination for Natalya to return was very a lot influenced by the sensation that if she grew to become an ‘overstayer’ now it might wreck her future partner visa software.
“The UK Visas and Immigration recommendation was so unhelpful, as they pushed us into making what turned out to be a horrible determination. "
A letter from UKVI to Natalya on February 17 acknowledged that she can be allowed to remain till April 28.
It provides: “Throughout this time, you'll not be thought to be an overstayer or endure any detriment in any future purposes. Nevertheless, you could make plans to depart the UK previous to the date that your assurance expires. If you don't depart on or earlier than this date, you may be classed as an overstayer.”
Peter mentioned: “We had been bounced round varied departments and we made it very clear that Natalya was fearful about going to Ukraine, given the Prime Minister was telling us all that Russia was on the point of invasion.
“However the backside line for them was to inform us that if Natalya stayed past April she can be an ‘overstayer’ and that would sink out future collectively on Scotland. We had been held over a barrel and it brought on us to make this disastrous determination for her to go there.”
Final night time Peter was advised by Natalya that she had managed to get a ticket for a bus from Lviv to the Hungarian border.
The exodus concerned a two day wait as soon as arriving in Lviv, then one other two days awaiting their exit to be processed by Polish border officers.
Peter has been primed, with suitcase packed, to journey to whichever metropolis his spouse can attain as soon as she will get out of Ukraine.
He mentioned: “I’m not panicking as a result of she’s carried out the whole lot proper and she or he appears to be on the best way residence.
“However the Ukraine is a unstable place swiftly and I'll imagine it once I see it. I can’t wait to see her once more.
“I don’t know the way lengthy it's going to take however I hope to hitch her, maybe in Budapest, as quickly as I get the phrase.”
The SNP’s Shadow House Secretary Stuart McDonald MP slammed the House Workplace for its “merciless” insurance policies.
He mentioned: “Requiring individuals to journey 1000's of miles away from their households simply to use for a visa to come back all the best way again once more is an extremely merciless coverage at the perfect of occasions.
“However to use it in circumstances when the UK authorities has been saying an invasion of Ukraine was trying probably is totally appalling and surprising.
“With the UN in the present day warning that greater than half 1,000,000 individuals have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded final week, it's completely important that the UK authorities steps up its efforts to assist these fleeing the struggle and looking for security.
“Our EU companions have already taken the welcome step in lifting visa restrictions, eradicating the barrier of paperwork, and welcoming them no matter whether or not or not they've a household connection in any EU member state.
“In distinction, the UK authorities’s visa announcement wasn’t something new in any respect - it was only a description of the very restrictive household visas which are already in place which falls effectively quick of what's wanted now.
“The UK authorities should instantly observe the lead of the EU and raise its restrictive visa necessities for all Ukrainians looking for entry to the UK, something lower than that may be unacceptable.”
Gary Christie, Head of Coverage, Communications & Communities, Scottish Refugee Council mentioned: “It seems the House Workplace was woefully underprepared for this disaster, and issued recommendation out of step with the fact of the state of affairs.
"These are actual individuals’s lives and much better care than the House Workplace has proven should be taken.
“Sadly, these conditions are being confronted by many households and people as this disaster develops. We have to see strong and swift motion from the House Workplace to deliver extra households collectively in security from this dreadful battle.”
A House Workplace spokesman mentioned he didn't imagine their steering had urged Natalya might have a future visa software rejected.
He highlighted three tweets by House Secretary Priti Patel, which outlined how British nationals can deliver their Ukrainian household to the UK to hunt sanctuary.