Things to do on arrival to UK
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1. Plan your journey and after you arrive in the UK
Although this resource focuses on what will happen once you arrive in the UK and the different services you’ll interact with, much of this information will be useful to know before you arrive. Whether you are waiting to come to the UK or have just arrived, read through the following information to get an idea of how to build a network of support, your rights and responsibilities and what to do if you need help after arrival.
Plan your journey to UK: Free or Low Cost Travel for Ukrainians - Homes For Ukraine
Bringing your pet to the UK from Ukraine:
What you must do to bring your pet to the UK from Ukraine if you are seeking refuge.
2. Upon your arrival in the UK
Upon arrival to the airport – lookout for any Homes For Ukraine volunteers or a stand designated to help Ukrainians. They might help you with information on travel, and if they have any mobile phone SIM cards – please take one of these, you will need a local phone number to open bank account and sign up for other services.
National express offers free travel within the UK.
Rail companies offer free journeys for the first 48h after someone enters UK.
You might need to show your documents to the driver on the bus or ticket inspector on the train. This might be helpful when planning your journey: Plan Your Journey | Traveline
Depending on the time of your arrival – there might be disruption to public transport services, and you might need to get a cab from a coach station to your sponsor’s home. Ask your sponsor beforehand if they can help you with all or part of your travel from the airport.
It is a good idea to inform us about the day of your arrival, so that we know to expect you and be ready to help should anything go wrong, and you must inform us when you arrive to your sponsor, so that a Support Worker is allocated to you.
If you arrive while our offices are closed and encounter a problem – you will need to contact out-of-hours support lines.
When you have arrived at your sponsor – you will need to (if not already got a free SIM from the airport) buy a sim card for your phone.
You’ll then need to open a bank account. You can try doing it online or going to a local branch of any bank. In the past Monza bank was very helpful and easy to apply online. Read the guide on opening a bank account:
You’d then need to apply for the interim payment of £200 to help you with everyday costs till your Benefits will be set up and in payment (if you decided to register for benefits).
As Homes For Ukraine guest, you have the right to public funds and can apply for Universal Credit benefits to help you financially until you find a job.
You also have right for free medical services. For that – you'll need to register with you local GP practice.
More information about Healthcare
If you are travelling with children – they would need to be enrolled into school, college or nursery.
Finding Local, Community-Led Support
Once you’ve arrived in your sponsor’s home, your sponsor will do the best they can to make sure you feel comfortable. Keep in mind that sponsors may not be able to help you with everything and may only have limited capacity to support you outside of the house. Your Support Worker could help you sign up for essential services when you arrive. Also, there are plenty of organisations, community-led support groups and networks across the UK that can help you.
You can start to research this before you arrive and contact some organisations that may be able to provide you with support. The best way to do this, is to use Google search and type questions like ‘Ukrainian support in ‘name of town/village)’. You can also use your county name, which you can find by typing in your town/village and then ‘county’. Often, their information will be translated into Ukrainian or Russian, but this is not always the case.
You can also ask your sponsor if they know of any local groups that could support you in the area. There could be WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups or a small community-led group working around the area which can support you with anything from accessing English classes, opening a bank account, finding a job to enrolling your children in school.
Cost of living and managing financial disappointment
For most refugees, integration and financial security are interlinked, especially when they are resettled to a relatively wealthy country like the UK. Many refugees arriving to the UK are surprised and disappointed when they find that they will be living on a small amount of money each month through benefits payments.
To help you manage your finances you may need to find out simple things like which supermarket is the cheapest, or purchasing a weekly bus pass is cheaper than buying a ticket every day. Talk to your host or your Support Worker about the cost of living and any guidance on how to manage that. The Job Centre will also be able to provide budgeting advice and support.
You can look at our Cost of Living resource.
Ask your host to show you cash machines that charge and those that don’t, how to set up online banking etc.
Benefit calculators can help you understand how work will affect your benefits.