Ukraine: Grandmother to arrive in Brighton after visa wait

Anna Maria Salzay's grandmother is due in the UK on Thursday

A Ukrainian woman is to join family in Brighton after she was given approval to travel after a four-day visa wait.

Anna Maria Szalay's 74 year-old grandmother Svitlana Ziolkovska, who has an existing two-year UK travel visa, waited four days in Poland for UK officials to stamp her passport.

She is now due to fly into Luton Airport on Thursday evening.

The Home Office said valid visa holders no longer have to attend in-person appointments.

Ms Ziolkovska had been in Warsaw, in Poland, since Friday, after traveling from Kyiv.

She needed a final stamp in her passport from a British visa office. The Kyiv office closed when the Russians invaded.

Ms Szalay said her grandmother received the stamp on her passport allowing her into the UK on Tuesday.

The law student at the University of Sussex also said she was relieved her grandmother would soon be making the journey to Brighton.

"She's incredibly frail. Not the type of person who could push themselves to the front of a queue," she said.

"She's out, safe, but so many people aren't. So many people are still trapped in Kyiv."

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Anna Maria Salzay's grandmother is due in the UK on Thursday

The Home Office said valid visa holders no longer have to attend in-person appointments to submit fingerprints or facial verification.

It also said it had expanded capacity at visa application centres to 13,000 appointments per week across Europe.

Anna Maria's mother Anna has travelled to Warsaw to be with her grandmother and will return with her on Thursday.

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