Waive visa requirement for Ukrainian refugees.
The Parliament petitions site records 188,650 signatures for this petition, which closed on 28 August 2022. The Government responded on 6 April 2022. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 14 March 2022.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Waive visa requirement for Ukrainian refugees.
Join other nations in providing a route to safety for refugees. Waive all visa requirements for Ukrainian passport holders arriving in the UK.
They are war refugees, our hands are tied to assist with boots on the ground, let us give the people of Ukraine a safe place for their families and children to flee to.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 6 April 2022; the petitions site lists the Home Office as responsible. Its summary:
Visas provide clarity and stability to an individual having moved from another country following horrific events. They also act to prevent incidents of adult and child human trafficking.
The opening 344 words of the 502-word response:
Biometric checks are an essential part of our visa application process. There are those who seek to take advantage of the UK, and we will not let them use the Government’s humanitarian schemes for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion to do so.
We are aware of cases where individuals that could pose a national security threat have attempted to enter the UK during crisis situations, and biometric checks have enabled us to identify these individuals as potential threats.
However, in order to make our Schemes as straightforward to use as possible, and based on the latest security advice, on 15 March we made changes to allow Ukrainians with valid passports who are eligible for this route to do their application online. They will no longer need to go to a Visa Application Centre to give their biometrics before they come to the UK, instead giving them after they have entered the UK.
Visa applications give the UK the chance to assess the applicant’s circumstances, such as where they come from, why they want to come to the UK, how long they want to stay for, and their personal situation and skills.
From the UK’s perspective, this about security concerns. Given the malign action being taken by the Russian state to infiltrate Ukraine, these checks are a fundamental part of our visa approval process and will continue, as they did for the evacuation of Afghanistan, to keep the UK safe. There are those who seek to take advantage of the UK.
As the Home Secretary has said: “Russian troops are seeking to infiltrate and merge with Ukrainian forces. Extremists are on the ground and in the region, too. Given this, and also with Putin’s willingness to do violence on British soil, and in keeping with our approach, which we retained consistently throughout all emergency evacuations, including that of Afghanistan, we cannot suspend any security or biometric checks on people we welcome to our country. We have a collective duty to keep the British people safe and this approach is based on the strongest security advice.”
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 1,499, came from Hornsey and Wood Green.
184,878 of the signatures were from the UK and 3,772 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Hornsey and Wood Green | 1,499 |
| Hackney North and Stoke Newington | 1,482 |
| Hackney South and Shoreditch | 1,479 |
| Holborn and St Pancras | 1,358 |
| Bristol West | 1,332 |
| Islington North | 1,265 |
| Bethnal Green and Bow | 1,248 |
| Hampstead and Kilburn | 1,189 |
| Islington South and Finsbury | 1,161 |
| Bermondsey and Old Southwark | 1,156 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| London | 45,078 |
| South East | 30,512 |
| South West | 18,913 |
| Scotland | 16,314 |
| East of England | 16,299 |
| North West | 12,824 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 11,027 |
| East Midlands | 9,578 |
| West Midlands | 8,864 |
| Wales | 7,451 |
| North East | 4,721 |
| Northern Ireland | 2,547 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 14 March 2022. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/609530.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
8a6060e3adb80b5f… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.