THE number of visas issued under the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Oldham has risen.

The data has been published by the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.

The Homes for Ukraine scheme allows Ukrainian nationals and their family members to come to the UK if they have a named sponsor.

Visas have been issued to local authorities based on the postcode of the sponsor’s address, or of the accommodation address if the applicant is not staying with the sponsor.

Not all records of visas have a postcode that has been mapped to a local authority area, but the number of records excluded is less than one per cent. 

In Oldham, there have so far been 35 visas issued under the scheme as of April 19.

This is an increase from the 11 issued as of April 6.

The highest number of visas have been issued in Buckinghamshire, where 507 visas have been approved.

Regionally, there have been 149 issued for Manchester, followed by 127 in Trafford.

The data is provisional and is likely to include some duplicate records, so may not be an exact record of the number of individuals who have been issued visas.

The data does not contain the number of visas issued through the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allows applicants to join family members or extend their stay in the UK.

In addition, 2,137 visas have been issued under the direct sponsorship of the Scottish Government and 392 by the Welsh Government.

The Welsh and Scottish Governments have undertaken to match beneficiaries who do not have a named sponsor at the point of application with a suitable sponsor in due course.