Ukrainian refugees with passports will be able to seek safety in the UK without needing to travel to a visa application centre - but this new streamlined approach will not take effect until Tuesday.
Priti Patel has confirmed people fleeing Vladimir Putin's troops will be able to apply online from wherever they are and will be able to give their biometrics once in Britain.
Figures from Downing Street on Wednesday showed Britain has granted just 957 visas and the United Nations estimates more than two million refugees have fled Ukraine.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the UK's visa response to Ukrainians "has been shameful" and questioned why it will take days to be implemented.
The Home Secretary claimed the new streamlined approach is not being implemented immediately because of "digital verification" matters.
Responding to an Urgent Question this morning, Ms Patel told MPs: "From Tuesday, I can announce that Ukrainians with passports will no longer need to go to a visa application centre to give their biometrics before they come to the UK.
“Instead, once their application has been considered and appropriate checks completed, they will receive direct notification that they’re eligible for the scheme and can come to the UK.
“In short, Ukrainians with passports will be able to get permission to come here fully online from wherever they are and will be able to give their biometrics once in Britain.
“This will mean that visa application centres across Europe can focus their efforts on helping Ukrainians without passports.”
Ms Cooper said: "It is welcome that she’s now introducing the online approach, that we know they tried different ways of doing for the Hong Kong visas, but why has it taken so long when she has had intelligence for weeks, if not months, that she needed to prepare for a Russian invasion of Ukraine?
“Why still if we’ve still got to wait until Tuesday for this new system to come in, what is to happen for everybody else in the meantime? Why is she not bringing in the armed forces?
She added: "There was something known as the Windrush scandal, and it's important that everyone arriving in the UK has physical and digital records of their status."
It comes days after Kyiv’s ambassador to the UK demanded she slash red tape hampering asylum seekers’ attempts to reach Britain.
Vadym Prystaiko told BBC’s Question Time: “I just wanted to tell you that most of our men are staying behind and fighting, so … most of the people you will see are just women with children, which I totally hope they’re not posing any threat, especially a terrorist threat to the UK.
“So that’s why I hope and I beg that the procedures will be dropped and every bureaucratic red tape should be cancelled.”
SNP MP Joanna Cherry called on Ms Patel to apologise to the refugees "whose suffering was exacerbated" by the Home Office's lacklustre scheme.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, called it the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
