A British citizen who drove to Poland to rescue his Ukrainian wife and diabetic daughter is stranded in Paris after being unable to secure a visa for them to enter the UK, despite new Home Office rules intended to fast-track applications.
Yakiv Voloshchuk, 60, from London, travelled to the Polish border on 26 February to collect his wife Oksana, 41, and their 15-year-old daughter Veronika. After a 24-hour road journey across Europe, the family arrived in Paris on Sunday, hoping to obtain clearance from British officials to complete the final leg to the UK.
However, when Oksana and Veronika attempted to apply online for the new visa—announced by the government on Sunday evening as free for immediate family members of British citizens—they were blocked unless they paid thousands of pounds. “We just don’t know what to do,” Voloshchuk said. “My wife’s bank account in Ukraine is frozen. We are getting very worried about my daughter because she is type 1 diabetic and is running out of insulin.”
The family was turned away at Calais and directed to a visa centre in Paris, where they were told to apply online. The application system demanded £2,200 per person plus medical charges, and the embassy reportedly said it could not help. Another Ukrainian, Nataliya Rumyantseva, is also stuck in Paris with her mother, who does not qualify for the free visa under the new rules.
Both families have been shuttled between the UK visa processing centre, the British embassy, and the consulate, and are now told to go to another location. “I’m feeling so helpless,” Rumyantseva said. “We know the source of all our problems is what Russia has done but dealing with all of this as well makes us feel like we are in a psychological pressure chamber.”
A government spokesperson said: “This country has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it. We are working around the clock to process visa applications and are processing many applications in a matter of hours.”
