Together Now

What is family reunion?

Once granted refugee status the dependants of a refugee can be given permission to come and reside in the UK. Dependants include partners and children under the age of 18.

Many have been separated from their families for years whilst seeking asylum, with limited contact. For families who have already been through a traumatic experience this period of separation can cause further distress and prevent refugees from being able to settle properly in the UK.

It can be difficult to understand what a long-term separation from family members might feel like especially in such stressful circumstances with a lot of uncertainty about the future.

Who qualifies for our family reunion service?

Applicants must meet our criteria as below:

  • Applicant must have refugee status in the UK and be in the process of or have obtained UK entry visas for their family’s travel
  • Applicants must be able to prove they cannot afford to fund or arrange the travel themselves
  • Applicants must have been granted refugee status in the last 5 years and must be able to provide proof of their status to accompany any application

If there are extenuating circumstances, particularly around facilitating reunions for unaccompanied minors these criteria may be reconsidered.

More detail on the information required to apply for our service can be found here.

What our family reunion service covers

We have been reuniting refugees with their families since 2010. There are often a range of challenges through the family reunion process which our service helps with.

The most common function for our service is funding and booking travel for UK based refugees’ family members to bring them back together. 

We are unable to fund travel retrospectively.

Outside of booking travel we are sometimes able to help with other essential costs to support our client – but only if the reunion would not take place without our intervention.

Examples of these include:

  • Cost of travel to a departure airport.
  • Exit costs including visas or vaccination certificates.
  • Travel to a visa appointment in extraordinary circumstances, for example where a family is in immediate danger or unaccompanied minors are travelling.
  • DNA testing to support applications or appeals. 

For cases outside of our ‘normal’ remit we may ask for additional information including:

  • Confirmation that the applicant is not able to receive support with costs from elsewhere though their own networks.
  • The items being funded are essential to family reunion travel or an application for visas.

Who to contact

E-mail
Website
togethernow.org.uk/
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Last Updated

Last updated: 27/10/2021

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