Natalia Kulish had to make a decision.
If the family's visas to the UK took much longer to be issued, she could stay in Poland with her two children. She could return to war-torn Ukranian and put her children at risk of being bombed.
Kulish is one of several families of refugees who have decided to return to their home country instead of waiting for the Home Office to process their paperwork.
Kulish and her children fled Dnipro on March 16.
They traveled to Warsaw, where a Polish man agreed to temporarily house them in his apartment while they waited for their visas to be issued.
They applied for the Homes for Ukraine program on the day it was launched. Kulish was told she could get a visa in four days.
The Kulish family planned to go to the UK to start a new life with a sponsor family.
The visa888-607-888-607-3166 was888-607-888-607-888-607-3166 was888-607-888-607-888-607-3166 was888-607-3166 was888-607-888-607-3166 was888-607-888-607-3166 was not issued for two weeks. Kulish and her family were no longer able to stay in the one-bedroom Warsaw apartment.
There was no opportunity to rent housing at an affordable price in Warsaw, she told Insider.
Kulish decided to return to her home in Ukraine on April 2 because of the possibility of homelessness.
Kulish said that the nights pass anxiously as she and her children listen to sirens and wait for their visas to be approved.
Another family returned to their home in a war zone on Thursday.
A group of people, including a newborn baby, escaped to Poland by foot last month.
ila Majewska, who is Polish but lives in Derby, England, was matched with Liliia and Platon on a Facebook group.
Majewska started preparing her home. She waited for their arrival after buying a cot and a pram.
Majewska visited a visa center in Warsaw as the visa application process dragged on. The family was told the visas would take five days to process.
The family stayed at a Polish woman's house.
After 17 days, their sponsor said, they realized that staying in Warsaw was no longer viable.
When you are told that it will be for a maximum of a week and then 17 days and still waiting, it is emotional.
If they got the visa on time, they would be safe and comfortable, she said.
Majewska noted that living in a state of purity has had a negative effect on the family's mental health.
According to figures released by the Home Office, only 1,200 Ukrainians who have applied for the Homes for Ukraine program have arrived in the UK.
The minister for refugees has described the plan as a slow and bureaucratic process.
In response to Putin's barbaric invasion we have launched one of the fastest and biggest visa schemes in UK history. In just four weeks, over 40,000 visas have been issued so people can come to the UK.
Home Office figures show that 41,000 visas have been granted to Ukrainians fleeing the war. There are 12,000 Ukrainians in the UK.
The Republic of Ireland, which has a tenth of the population of the UK, has welcomed more than 20,000 people from Ukraine.
The UK government should waive visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees to bring the country in line with other EU nations.
Many of the UK's incoming refugees are arriving via the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allows applicants to apply for a visa to join a UK-based family member.
Of the 36,300 applicants, 10,800 have arrived in the UK.
Peter Lee told Insider that his relatives were forced to return to Ukraine because of the application process, but that his mother-in-law and sister-in-law were among those who benefited from the program.
After fleeing Uzhhorod, in western Ukraine, by foot, Lee's family were trying to join him in the UK.
Lee put them in a hotel in Hungary. The family decided it was no longer viable to pay for expensive accommodations as the visa process dragged on.
We felt the only option for us was for them to go back to Ukraine.
The family had their visas approved and are now living in the UK.
The Lee family had to go through a bureaucratic nightmare according to Sandip Basu, a volunteer legal adviser with the Ukraine Advice Project. He said that it shows that the UK's visa application process is not fit for purpose.
There is a lack of communication between the Home Office, the government, and the visa application center.
The Home Secretary apologized for the program's failures on Friday. She said that any new scheme takes time. Any new visa system takes time.
The greatest flaw of the system is that it fails to consider the decisions refugees are being forced to make.
He said that it was a choice between hunger and homelessness, or going back to their home, even though there was the risk of bombs being dropped on them.
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