A guide for refugees from Central Asia · United Kingdom
Qadam London
a refugee's guide and a community of our own
Qadam — step by step to a new life
Qadam London is a guide for refugees from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in the UK. We explain the asylum process step by step: screening, interview, decision, what comes next. And everything around it: a doctor and the NHS, papers and status, housing, money, English, work, safety.
Here the system is explained in plain language: no legal fog, no lectures and no "are you sure?". Like a brother or sister who arrived before you and has already made all the mistakes.
The channel is open: subscribe and you see everything straight away. The closed group is by request, and an admin approves each one by hand, usually within the day. That's safer for everyone inside. Questions go to info@qadamlondon.uk — a person replies. If you're here because of an asylum case, start with the section “Asylum step by step”.
The first community from Kazakhstan and Central Asia in the UK
There simply wasn't a place like this before. A guide you can read on your phone in an evening, a step-by-step plan for your situation and a chat where you don't have to explain anything from scratch. Everything Qadam London does is free: the guide, the plan, the chat, the bot. We don't take donations from members.
News · channel @qadamlondon
What's new
We support openly
No one here asks who you are or why you came
A community for everyone from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. LGBTQ+ people and women's rights are supported here openly — there are separate pages for them. That isn't an “extra audience”, it follows from who we are: we stand for justice, equality and freedom. Everything else on the site is for everyone.
Your next step
Describe your situation — you'll get a plan of what to do
Not a general article, but a route just for you. You fill in a request, and 24 hours later there's an email in your inbox from a person who has looked into your specific case.
- Where to go. Addresses, phone numbers and opening hours for your area — a clinic, a college, a legal aid firm, not "contact the NHS".
- What to say. Ready-made phrases in English with a translation: for reception, for calling a lawyer, for a letter to the college.
- What to bring and in what order. A list of documents, steps day by day, what to do if they say no.
- Who to call if something goes wrong. Trusted helplines for your topic — and our address, so you can reply and ask more.
The main reason people come here
Asylum: step by step
The scariest thing about this process is not understanding what's going on and what comes next. We've broken it down piece by piece: what asylum is, how the screening interview works, how to prepare for the substantive interview, what criteria your case is judged on and what to do after the answer — whichever one it is.
Important: these are explanations, not advice on your case. We're not allowed to give individual immigration advice — and we'll tell you honestly when a question is one for a lawyer.
What asylum is
What protection is actually based on, who can claim it, what the 1951 Convention has to do with it and why sexual orientation is a legitimate ground.
Open → 2Screening interview
The first short meeting: what they ask, how long it takes, what to say and why you shouldn't try to tell your whole story in two sentences here.
Open → 3While you wait for a decision
Money, housing, ARC, doctor, what you can and can't do. How to get through this time without losing your mind.
Open → 4Substantive interview
The most important day. How to prepare, how to answer, what they really ask and what they have no right to demand from you.
Open → 5How the decision is made
What credibility is, why country information matters and why it's all harder for Kazakhstan than for Uzbekistan.
Open → 6Evidence
What really works, what to gather in advance and why most people have no documents at all — and that's normal.
Open → 7You've got a positive decision
Congratulations — and straight to business: you have around 42 days. What to get done, where to run first and what almost everyone finds out too late.
Open → 8Refusal or detention
14 days to appeal, section 4, who to call in the first hours. A refusal isn't the end, and it's too early to panic.
Open →Practical support
Six areas — and all of it in a step-by-step plan
Below is what we actually help with. Each area is set out in detail in the step-by-step adaptation plan: what to do, in what order, who to call and which links to open. The plan is free, you pick it up in our channel, no registration.
Doctor and health
Register with a GP with no documents and no address. Tests, HIV, PrEP — free and with no questions about your status. An interpreter if your English isn't enough.
Case and status
How the process works, what to prepare for, where to find a free legal aid lawyer and how to avoid the ones who charge thousands of pounds for nothing.
Housing and money
Home Office support, the ASPEN card, the HC2 certificate for free prescriptions and dental care. What to do if your accommodation isn't safe.
English and study
Free ESOL courses and the six-month rule almost nobody knows about. Conversation clubs where no one asks about your status.
Open →Safety
Phone, messages, blackmail with intimate photos, threats from 'your own people'. What to do straight away and why you must never pay.
People and community
The most underrated one. Loneliness doesn't hit in the first month but in the third — when the paperwork is done and there's still nobody around.
More guides
The things people don't usually say out loud
Not just about paperwork. About health, about safety, about how life here actually works and what to do when it all gets too much.
English and study step by step
Who gets college for free and when, what to do in the first six months, appeal, without status, university. Question — answer.
Open →Free lawyer
Legal aid for asylum: checking if you qualify, searching by postcode, a ready-made script for the call and the email, five questions for the first meeting.
Open →A personal plan within 24 hours
A lawyer, a GP, testing and PrEP, English, a therapist, a letter from the Home Office — describe your situation and we'll email you a step-by-step plan. Free.
Send a request →Without status
What the real risks are, what you don't need to fear, where the actual danger is and which doors really exist. No illusions and no scaremongering.
Open →Blackmail and digital safety
Phone, messages, intimate photos, threats to tell people back home. What to do straight away and why you must not pay.
Open →Life here
Doctor, mental health, dating, housing, rights at work. How it all works if you're just starting out.
Open →STIs: symptoms and tests
Eleven infections in one table. What's included in a standard test and what you need to ask for separately.
Open →Free vaccinations
Eight vaccines people back home usually don't get. HPV, hepatitis, mpox — free and with no documents.
Open →What all these words mean
GP, eVisa, share code, ILR, ASPEN, ESOL, U=U and thirty more terms that make your head spin at first.
Open →Evidence for your case
What actually counts as evidence, what to collect in advance and what nobody has the right to demand from you.
Open →Get in touch
The first line is email. A person replies
No need to find the right words or register. Write it as it is — in Russian or in your own language.
Questions about the site and materials, partnerships, organisations, media, suggestions. The project's general address.
Timur personallyTimur Nygmetov →Collaboration, personal matters, “it's just hard” — his address is on his page.
Your own situationPersonal plan — freeIf what you need isn't an answer to a question but a step-by-step route for your area and status — the request form is here. Reply within 24 hours.
At night and at weekends, the bot @QadamLondonBot will give a quick answer to a common question — but that's a pointer, not a reply from a person. On an asylum case, only an IAA-registered adviser or an SRA / BSB lawyer can advise.
Where next
What else is on the site
When it is hard
A year, two, three without a decision. An appeal. A letter from Timur — someone who sat in this same chair himself — and the phone numbers where they'll help you today.
Open →Check and the "Who am I?" quiz
Ten questions about first steps and ten questions about yourself. Your answers go nowhere.
Open →Bot: quick answers 24/7
Replies straight away, at three in the morning too. A pointer on a common question — while the inbox is asleep.
Open →Community
The channel, the private group, how we work, our limits and frequently asked questions.
Open →Where to get help
All the phone numbers in one place: emergency, free helplines, interpreters.
Open →Who is behind this
Timur Nygmetov: from Kazakhstan, went through the whole asylum journey himself, Legal Intern at ACAA.
Open →ACAA
The organisation we support.
Open →