Many employers are looking to offer jobs to Ukrainian refugees. If you as an employer would like to do the same, but are not sure if you can or how to go about it the vital information that you need is outlined below.
The Government has set up several schemes to help Ukrainian refugees to find work in the UK. These schemes allow the person to be sponsored for a period of 6 months.
How to make an offer of work to Ukrainian refugees
As an employer wanting to offer work to a Ukrainian refugee you must ensure that you
inform the home office of your intention to employee a refugee.
There is no obligation for employers to provide accommodation to the refugees employed, there is a separate scheme for this, which is called the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.
Employers can offer full-time, part-time or even consider voluntary roles.
Before employing someone, you must ensure that they have the right to work in the UK, so the appropriate checks must be carried out. Information on what these checks are can be found at www.gov.uk. These are the same checks that employers must be following to ensure anyone has the right to work in the UK.
Before an employer offers work to an individual, an email must be sent to offerwork@homeoffice.gov.uk providing the following information:
- Company name and contact details
- How many positions there are available
- Location of the position
- Job description for each role
- Hours for each role
- If English language qualifications are needed
- Any extra support that can be offered, for example mentoring or english courses.
Homes for Ukraine Scheme – How does it work?
The home for Ukraine scheme allows employers or an individual to sponsor a contact and provide them with housing, this must be for at least six months.
If there is a named person to sponsor already set up, a visa application needs to be completed along with the details of the refugee and Company details. Any individual to be sponsored must have been living in Ukraine on or immediately before 1st January 2022 and be outside of the UK currently.
After the application is complete then the individual will be contacted confirming they can travel to the UK without a visa.
In order to extend their stay in the UK for up to 3 years, they will need to submit their biometric information.
If you wish to sponsor and do not have a named contact to sponsor, then people must register their interest to be a sponsor at https://www.gov.uk/register-interest-homes-ukraine.
Accommodation must be offered for a minimum of 6 months, employers cannot just offer a position within the company.
Standard Visa Scheme
If an individual cannot apply through one of the other schemes, they may take this route instead. If you are already a licensed sponsor, you may recruit a Ukrainian national by allocating a certificate of sponsorship so they can work under a Skilled Worker visa. The vacancy itself would need to comply with the usual criteria involved in the points-based system.
Extending any existing visas
Any Ukrainian nationals who are already working in the UK will have the opportunity to extend any current visas.
If permission was granted to stay in the UK on, or before, 18th March 2022, they are able to do this via the Ukraine Extension Scheme. If permission to stay in the UK has expired since 1st January 2022, they are still able to apply.
If you need any help or advice on international recruitment, or other topics, please contact us.
