Introduction
Thank you for offering your home to guests from Ukraine under the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme.
The Government has provided guidance to support you as a sponsor, which can be accessed from the below link;
Ukraine Permission Extension scheme
The UPE scheme opens for applications on 4 February 2025 from 09:00 UK time. If your guest wants to extend their visa under this scheme they will need to make their application within 28 days of their visa expiring and not before that time.
Here is the link to the government guidance on the UPE scheme for sponsors:
Homes for Ukraine: Ukraine Permission Extension scheme - guidance for sponsors - GOV.UK
When guests apply for a UPE visa, sponsors/hosts should reapply if they wish to continue to receive a monthly thank you payment. Sponsors/hosts of those previously on Homes for Ukraine visas will be eligible for thank-you payments of £350 a month for the 18 months that guests are covered by the UPE visa.
Thank you payments will not be payable if there is a close family relationship between sponsor/host and guest. Sponsors/hosts who are related to their guests who are currently in receipt of thank you payments, and whose guest transfers to the UPE scheme, will no longer be eligible for thank you payments. This is in line with the changes made for new applications for thank you payments from 1 October 2024.
Close family members refers to any of the following: spouse, civil or unmarried partners, parents, parents-in-law, sons or daughters, sons or daughters-in-law, step-sons or step-daughters, siblings, grandparents, or the spouses, civil or unmarried partners of these people.