Flight from Ukraine to USA

[Paul&Anna 26]

On the U.S. Embassy website for Kiev every few days they post flights from Kiev to the US. It doesn’t state these are for US citizens only and says to buy the ticket through UIA. my wife normally comes here for the summer as she is a school teacher and stays until the end of August. Does anyone know if she is aloud to take one of these flights? It does appear she can buy The ticket. Also Ukraine is saying they may open international travel June 15th but she is ready to come now. There is no guarantee they will actually open travel. We had a ticket through Turkish Airlines and yesterday it was canceled. She is packed and now we are both very upset as we haven’t seen each other since January.  She was supposed to come in March to visit for 10 days and all of this covid19 stuff happened. So this hurts. We are looking forward to being together for the entire summer. 

[Just Paul 4,591]

The purpose of the flights is repatriation. If she just has a tourist visa I would suspect she would not be allowed to use a seat on an Embassy flight.   Some embassies have allowed green card holders and spousal visa holders.   A few have allowed K1's.

 

But email / call and find out.

[Paul&Anna 26]

4 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

The purpose of the flights is repatriation. If she just has a tourist visa I would suspect she would not be allowed to use a seat on an Embassy flight.   Some embassies have allowed green card holders and spousal visa holders.   A few have allowed K1's.

 

But email / call and find out.

Ok tomorrow we will make calls. It specifically says This is not a U.S. government-operated or -funded flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://ua.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

[Crazy Cat 39,136]

3 minutes ago, Paul&Anna said:

Ok tomorrow we will make calls. It specifically says This is not a U.S. government-operated or -funded flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://ua.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

Then why was it posted on the US Embassy website?  It is funded by passengers.  I doubt tourists will be allowed, but please let us know.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Lucky Cat

[Paul&Anna 26]

And it doesn’t say anywhere it’s a repatriation flight. Which is why I’m asking. She has a B2 visa and is my wife. If not it’s looking like they will resume travel On the 15th. 

[Liam2021 547]

If it listed on Embassy website, then it repatriation flight. These kind of flight was authorized by government with the purpose to bring their citizens/ LPR back home( passenger pay for it). There was a topic a passenger with a valid B2 visa( not from Ukraine) booked repatriation flight, and they not allowed to board the flight since they're not USC/ PLR. There is no harm to try since she has a valid B2.

[Just Paul 4,591]

Yes - The form has a box for B2

https://ua.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

 

But they say it needed to be done by the 4th.

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Paul & Mary

[gregcrs2 1,777]

I think the international flights they say are supposedly starting on June 15th is to some other countries around Europe and maybe Turkey.  What I'm reading is that iinternational flights to the US may start sometime in July.  We've been trying to fly back to Ukraine and 3 times our flights have been cancelled in the May/June timeframe.  

[Paul&Anna 26]

I will update any info I find. 

[JFH 12,189]

The post on the website about flights is written to give information to people looking for flights, it’s purely to try and stop people calling the embassy to ask about flights. The embassy is not a travel agency (but that doesn’t stop people calling continuously expecting the embassy to book flights home for them, pandemic or no pandemic). There are no guarantees by the embassy that the flights will operate or that individuals will be permitted to travel. It’s basically saying “call the airline if you want to find out if you can buy a ticket to the USA, not us”. 
 

OP, it may or it may not be possible for your wife to travel. The situation with international travel is very fluid and even a confirmed ticket on a flight does not mean one will be traveling on that day. I work for an airline and couldn’t even guarantee you if a flight of ours is going to operate on June 15. This has been a time of great personal disappointment for almost everyone in the country and beyond. I do not know of anyone who has not had a wedding/graduation/trip/party/birthday celebration/visit to grandma etc etc canceled this year. Whilst I sympathize that you have not seen your wife for some time, your situation is by no means unique right now. 

Edited June 7, 2020 by JFH

[Paul&Anna 26]

1 hour ago, JFH said:

The post on the website about flights is written to give information to people looking for flights, it’s purely to try and stop people calling the embassy to ask about flights. The embassy is not a travel agency (but that doesn’t stop people calling continuously expecting the embassy to book flights home for them, pandemic or no pandemic). There are no guarantees by the embassy that the flights will operate or that individuals will be permitted to travel. It’s basically saying “call the airline if you want to find out if you can buy a ticket to the USA, not us”. 
 

OP, it may or it may not be possible for your wife to travel. The situation with international travel is very fluid and even a confirmed ticket on a flight does not mean one will be traveling on that day. I work for an airline and couldn’t even guarantee you if a flight of ours is going to operate on June 15. This has been a time of great personal disappointment for almost everyone in the country and beyond. I do not know of anyone who has not had a wedding/graduation/trip/party/birthday celebration/visit to grandma etc etc canceled this year. Whilst I sympathize that you have not seen your wife for some time, your situation is by no means unique right now. 

Thank you. Your very informative and that is what we all need. 

[SteveInBostonI130 3,319]

The US embassy site posts information when UIA updates them of those special flights.  They are commercial flights (mostly, I think in March and April there were a couple repatriation flights) and need to be booked directly with UIA.  And they can only be booked as one-way flights.  

 

You will need to contact the airline to see if your wife can be on one of those flights.  US citizens and permanent residents can book them, but need to contact the US Embassy for the embassy to include them on a list of pre-clearance passengers sent to UIA.  I am not sure how spouses of US citizens with tourist visas are handled.

 

 

[Paul&Anna 26]

On 6/9/2020 at 8:17 PM, SteveInBostonI130 said:

The US embassy site posts information when UIA updates them of those special flights.  They are commercial flights (mostly, I think in March and April there were a couple repatriation flights) and need to be booked directly with UIA.  And they can only be booked as one-way flights.  

 

You will need to contact the airline to see if your wife can be on one of those flights.  US citizens and permanent residents can book them, but need to contact the US Embassy for the embassy to include them on a list of pre-clearance passengers sent to UIA.  I am not sure how spouses of US citizens with tourist visas are handled.

 

 

Thanks. She keeps trying to call the embassy and hasn’t gotten anything. We have found a flight from Minsk Belarus to Amsterdam then to jfk. And she is my spouse so the ban doesn’t apply to her. She is afraid after flying from Minsk to Amsterdam, that Amsterdam will not allow her on the flight to jfk. It’s impossible to reach anymore by phone. I check Amsterdam embassy site and they do have normal flights to the us

Edited June 11, 2020 by Paul&Anna

[gregcrs2 1,777]

OP, here's the latest flight news from Ukraine.

https://nv.ua/ukr/biz/experts/mizhnarodni-pereloti-yak-pracyuyut-ukrajinski-aeroporti-borispil-novini-ukrajini-50094184.html

So it looks like your wife should be able to fly through Turkey to the USA now.

Edited June 16, 2020 by gregcrs2

[Paul&Anna 26]

3 hours ago, gregcrs2 said:

OP, here's the latest flight news from Ukraine.

https://nv.ua/ukr/biz/experts/mizhnarodni-pereloti-yak-pracyuyut-ukrajinski-aeroporti-borispil-novini-ukrajini-50094184.html

So it looks like your wife should be able to fly through Turkey to the USA now.

Thanks. We booked a flight last Friday as soon as they announced the flight from Kiev to JFK and she will be here on Monday June 22. I am so excited.