Some of these Embassies/Visa Offices are actually informing Ukrainian citizens that they MUST report back to them when they return to Ukraine to prove they have returned.
The whole system is unfair and treats Ukrainians like second class citizens. Its as though the famous Iron Curtain was still in place. I have great empathy with all Ukrainians who have to go through the system.
A recent article in the Kyiv Post highlights yet again the problems. Quote:
Even those who can prove solid financial backing and who are married to EU citizens can run into problems.
Kamaliya, the singer-actress married to multimillionaire investor and Kyiv Post publisher Mohammad Zahoor, recently got turned down for a 10-year long-term visa to the United Kingdom. Zahoor, a UK citizen, owns a house in London and his wife, born Nataliia Shmarenkova, has traveled to Great Britain 11 times on eight short-term visas for a total of 72 days since 2005.
Yet she got a two-page rejection letter on Jan. 16 from a UK consular officer in Warsaw, Poland, who concluded that she was attempting to circumvent UK immigration laws and hadn’t provided sufficient financial and other proof that her stays in the UK would be limited to two weeks at a time, as she stated on her visa application.
Zahoor says that his wife will reapply. The UK Border Agency said it does not comment on individual cases. See full article: http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukrainians-say-eu-nations-still-too-stingy-with-visas-319317.html
In another case, a British citizen who had been living in Ukraine for many years recently decided to return to live and work in the UK. His wife is Russian citizen (non EU citizen) therefore the UKBA applied the new rules regarding British citizens who return home with a spouse and family. These new rules mean that he had to prove that he was going to have a minimum income of £18,600 plus additional income to show he can support his wife and child. After some considerable delay the family are reunited again in the UK. But it was a worrying time.
Many people are unaware of some of the very crazy EU laws and how they conflict with UK laws.
A citizen of an EU country can go and live with his/her family in the UK without any special requirements.
This is EU law. The right to live anywhere in the EU. However immigration is a bad word these days in the UK and the British public are cautious about the new rights to be given to Bulgarian and Hungarian citizens later in 2013. The fear is that many of these citizens will be opting to live in the UK to 'enjoy' the generous state benefits to which they will be entitled. Try reading the Daily Mail each day and you will become aware.
However, in contrast to all this I was recently remind of the power of the 'Investment Visa', which many rich Ukrainian and Russian citizens are obtaining via the £1 million route to enter and live in the UK.
On a flight from Kyiv to London I met a Ukrainian man who tells me that he flies from Kyiv to London each Friday and back to Kyiv on Mondays. His wife, her mother and their young child all live in London thanks to the £1 million Investor visa system. They had no problems with getting a visa and have no problems with the UKBA.
Unfair system? - You bet.
