For those who have been waiting a long time
When it is hard. You're not broken — you've just been waiting a very long time
For those whose case has been sitting for a year, two, three. For those on appeal. For those who no longer believe the letter will come. Here is the story of someone who sat in this same chair for two years, and the phone numbers where they'll help you today.
The story of Timur Nygmetov
Two years, one Monday
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4 August 2023
Six months, like everyone else
Timur flew to Britain on a seasonal worker visa — for six months, like most people. He was nineteen. He had no idea he was looking for a new home.
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10 November 2023
Claim submitted
In the first months he wasn't alone: his partner was with him in London. “I'll be honest — it was easier as two. When there are two of you, you hold each other up.” That was also when he saw people walking this path on their own, and how loneliness eats away at them. “That's one of the reasons Qadam came about later.”
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One day he remembers clearly
The break-up. From that day on — alone
In a foreign country, with no status, no language, and nineteen years behind him. “It was terrifying. The unknown — what comes next, whether I could manage on my own. The fear grew tenfold. That was when I wanted to give it all up. I stopped believing protection was even possible.”
“But I pulled myself together. Not because it got easier — it didn't. There was simply no way out other than to keep going. And I kept hoping.”
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A month. Six months. A year.
Silence
You send in your documents — and nothing. No letter, no “your case is being considered”. An emptiness that's easy to fill with any fear you like — and he filled it.
“I'm a very anxious person. I kept thinking: if they're silent, something must be wrong, they're going to refuse. So I started sending more: witness statements, certificates, letters, photos, more statements. Dozens of them. I thought if I sent one more piece of paper, the silence would end. It didn't. I wasn't fighting the Home Office — I was fighting my own head.”
He didn't look for a legal aid lawyer, and he was afraid to pay a private one £2–3 thousand — “what if I lose and the money's wasted”. What saved him was his law degree: he understood how a case is built. This is not advice. If you're not a lawyer, your first step is a free legal aid lawyer, and that is the only right way.
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Everyday life
Room attendant, ESOL, volunteering
Finding work was hard: weak English, nineteen years old, not a line of experience. “I started my career in Britain as a room attendant — a hotel housekeeper. I've always been hard-working, so money was bearable.” Then came college, volunteering, shifts.
Friends around him were getting positive decisions. “I was so happy for them. And at the same time I thought: if he got it, I'll get it too. Their decisions kept my hope alive.”
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2 April 2025
Substantive interview
Seventeen months after claiming — and at last the day he had been preparing for all that time. And after the interview, silence again. Another seven and a half months when the decision feels like it's just around the corner, and every morning starts with checking the post.
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17 November 2025 · Monday
The letter
An ordinary weekday, a shift at the hotel. After lunch, an email from the Home Office arrived on his phone. “I was really scared — I knew it was the decision.” He called over Asylzhan, a friend who was working the same shift, one of the people closest to him. They went into an empty room — 302, he still remembers the number. “My hands were shaking. The fear was awful. I gathered my courage and opened the letter.”
“Successful. I started jumping around the room and crying with happiness. Asylzhan hugged me and said: well done. I did it.”
In the first week it got easier — for the first time in two years. “I realised I'd be staying here for at least five years and could build a life.” Recently he joined ACAA — to help people who are now where he was then.
If he could go back
What he would tell himself in November 2023
Go and study. Straight away
“I lost about a year — I just didn't know that six months after claiming, college is free for an asylum seeker. The Home Office pays over three thousand pounds a year for your studies; for you it's zero. In Kazakhstan you couldn't get that opportunity for any money, and here it's lying on the table while you stare at your inbox.”
How to sign up for ESOL →Help. Don't stop
“Volunteering is allowed from day one. Help this country, help the people around you. I believe it comes back to you. But the main thing is this: when you're feeling low, help someone else. That's not a nice phrase, it's a way of healing. While someone needs you, you're not alone with the silence.”
Where to help and with whom →Listen
No energy to read? Just listen. 18 minutes
For those who are tired of waiting and have almost stopped hoping. Two calm voices — about the silence, about Timur's story, and about one small step you can take today. No cheerfulness and no “everything will be fine”. The voices are AI-generated from Qadam London materials.
You can listen in the background: minimise the browser or let the screen go dark — the sound carries on, with controls on the lock screen. No sound? Open the file.
Easier together
We're all the same. Join us
In the channel and the private group are people from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan who are waiting right now or have already got their decision. There, you don't have to explain from scratch why you're here.
The group is private; an admin approves each request by hand, usually within a day. If you need anonymity, set up a separate account with no phone number or photo.
Personal plan · free
Don't know what to take on while you wait? Write to us — we'll break it down step by step
College, work after 12 months, a Russian-speaking therapist, how to write to your MP — whatever fits your situation and your area. One person will read it and reply within 24 hours.
One step, not a list
Small things that help today
Choose one. Not all at once — one.
- Check your post once a dayAt the same time each day. The decision doesn't come any faster because you look more often — but the anxiety grows.
- Tell one person “I'm not okay”Not “fine”, but the truth. If there's no such person, that's what the phone numbers below and our group are for.
- Go out for an hour to where there are peopleA library, a park, college, a food bank. Not to get something done — just so you're not alone within four walls.
- Find out about free EnglishSix months after claiming, college is free. Before that, there are classes at libraries and churches. How to sign up.
- Help someone with something smallTranslate a letter for a neighbour, do an hour in a charity shop. Asylum seekers are allowed to volunteer.
What you can actually do about your case — without doing harm
Write to your MP
Your local MP can ask the Home Office about the status of your case — they reply to an MP faster than they reply to you. Find yours: members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP. Keep it short: who you are, when you claimed, what you're waiting for, your case reference.
Through a lawyer — not on your own
If your case has been sitting for more than a year, a lawyer can send a request about timescales or a pre-action letter. Only through an adviser registered with the IAA / SRA. No lawyer? How to find a free one.
After 12 months — permission to work
If there's been no decision for more than 12 months through no fault of your own, you can apply for permission to work. Jobs are limited to the Immigration Salary List, but it's a way out of the house and money of your own.
Who to call today — free, no questions about your status
Struggling and no one to talk to
116 123Samaritans. 24 hours a day, free, any level of English is fine — they know how to listen slowly.
24/7
Can't talk? Text
85258SHOUT. Text support — text the word SHOUT. A trained volunteer replies.
24/7
Free therapy on the NHS
NHS Talking TherapiesYou can refer yourself, no GP referral needed. You need to be registered with a GP; they don't ask about status. Interpreter — free.
Waiting list from weeks to months
For refugees and asylum seekers
0808 196 7272Refugee Council. Therapy programmes and support groups for people going through the process.
Mon–Fri
If you have survived torture or violence
020 7697 7777Freedom from Torture. Therapy and support, by referral from your lawyer or GP.
Mon–Fri 9:00–17:00
LGBTQ+ helpline
0800 0119 100Switchboard. A conversation about anything: loneliness, fear, exhaustion.
Daily 10:00–22:00
Phone numbers checked 05.10.2026. If you can't get through, call Samaritans — they're always there.
This is support and information, not medical help and not immigration advice. If life is at risk — 999.