Anyone got experience with getting an employee out of Ukraine?

[UberTiger]

We currently have a contractor based in Ukraine.

At the moment though it seems Ukrainian national and dual-national males aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.

We'd like to hire him full time and bring him to England ASAP.

I've done a little research so far and it seems there is a sponsorship scheme, but I'm not sure if that's a viable or recognised path in this situation.

I'd love to hear from anyone that may have any experience or success with this. Thanks

 

[UberTiger]

Yeah, I'm not sure what actually even happens at the moment if you show up at the airport. Surely people must be travelling back and forth for business, or is it literal total lockdown?

If so, how do Ukrainians involved with international businesses keep business alive and make meetings if they can't travel?

It's difficult to find out what the best and most swift legal route for this may be.

Our chap has no children, and no disabilities that I'm aware of, but he also hasn't been conscripted or has any reason to believe he will be imminently. He's just in limbo working remotely and we could really do with him over here to work with the rest of the team locally.

 

[UberTiger]

We're over 2 years in and nothing has changed for him. So yes, really.

If you've got nothing of value to add with respect to my original question then please refrain from contributing.

 

[UberTiger]

I appreciate that. The fact remains, this is a long term team member, who is incredibly valuable to a UK based company (and family of team members and peers that go back for over a decade) and I'm trying to evaluate what options we may have to ensure this remains the case.

 

[UberTiger]

is there any reason for him not to continue doing this?

We do actually need him over here to work with the team locally. Things are ramping up (company wise) and we need him in the same space as the rest of us so we can better communicate and keep up momentum.

He didn't even live there before the war, for the best part of a decade. He visited family after it began, now he's stuck according to publicly accessible docs and info pages. But now he wants to leave now as we need him local, and he wants to be with us, so we're in this conundrum.