When a sponsor withdraws from the scheme: Homes for Ukraine
What councils need to do when a sponsor wishes to withdraw their sponsorship. Includes when a visa has or hasn't been granted, and further accommodation.
Applies to England
When a sponsor wishes to withdraw from the scheme, they must contact their council as soon as possible. Sponsors must also inform their guests that they are no longer able to sponsor them under Homes for Ukraine.
Where the visa has been issued, the sponsor’s council should also take reasonable steps to contact the applicant to inform guests that their sponsor has withdrawn, and provide support to find alternative accommodation.
Withdrawal from multiple applications
In cases where a sponsor is sponsoring multiple applications, you should confirm whether the sponsor wishes to withdraw from all or only certain applications. When a sponsor notifies you that they wish to withdraw their sponsorship, you should report this in the case management system (CMS) by marking the sponsor as ‘withdrawn’ against the appropriate application, to inform the government of this decision as soon as possible.
The guest doesn’t have a visa yet
Where the applicant has not been issued a visa, the visa application will be put on hold. Where the applicant meets all other requirements, the applicant will be contacted by the government to offer them the option to withdraw their visa application or be supported in finding a new sponsor through a rematch. The government will also notify the sponsor to confirm to them that their application has been withdrawn.
The guest has a visa but is not in the UK
In cases where the guest has already been issued with a visa, but has not yet arrived in the UK, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will escalate this to Border Force, who will attempt to intercept the guest at the border and will contact the sponsor’s council to liaise on providing alternative accommodation.
When reporting a sponsor withdrawal in the CMS, councils should provide out-of-hours contact details in the comments box to enable Border Force to liaise with them when the guest arrives.
Councils should take reasonable steps to contact guests to inform them that the sponsor has not met the requirements of the scheme, and set out the alternative options available to the guest.
Where the guest is a child who has been granted a visa to be sponsored by a parent or legal guardian in the UK, councils should act in line with their statutory child safeguarding duties, including the Working together to safeguard children guidance.
Alternative accommodation and homelessness
In cases of post-visa sponsorship withdrawal, the council will be expected to help secure or provide alternative accommodation, or domestic rematching. As it would be unreasonable for the guest to occupy the accommodation, they would be owed statutory homelessness assistance.
Read more about Statutory homelessness duties.
Rematching
Local councils may be able to end a homelessness prevention or relief duty owed to a guest by facilitating a rematch, provided that the new placement and accommodation are suitable, and there is a reasonable prospect of it continuing to be available for at least 6 months.
Read more about Rematching.
Updates to this page
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Changes to the Homes for Ukraine sponsor eligibility criteria - to allow a parent or legal guardian to sponsor their child.
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First published.