Ukranian refugee relatives.

[Ducker 51]

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/24/1088506487/us-ukraine-refugees

Read today that the USA will admit 100,000 Ukranian refugees.

 

My wife is Ukranian with a green card, soon to start a citizenship application.  Her mother, father, sister, and nephew are refugees now relocated in Poland.  Unfortunately her brother in law is of age and had to stay in Ukraine.

 

We are looking at applying for refugee status for the family.  As information becomes available, we'd love to jump on this application immediately!  Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Chancy 6,233]

*** Moved from Bringing Family of LPR forum to the RUB regional forum, to be among other threads related to the current situation in the Ukraine ***

 

[Boiler 43,619]

I would not expect anything to happen quickly, best bet is to petition her parents once she has naturalised

 

Extremely vague, could mean anything 

[millefleur 5,038]

There hasn't been any concrete info yet that I've seen, regarding the vague 100k number. As far as I know, there are still no refugee visas as of yet. The Frankfurt and Warsaw embassies both still say this as of today: "Please do not contact the U.S. Embassy or Consulates in Germany for humanitarian assistance; we are unable to provide direct assistance to individual refugees."

 

The only thing that is open now if Humanitarian Parole via USCIS, which you could look into:

https://www.uscis.gov/forms/explore-my-options/humanitarian-parole

 

[Crazy Cat 39,397]

8 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Extremely vague, could mean anything 

My feelings, exactly.  Some Governments are fast to speak before any real logistics work has been done. 

[millefleur 5,038]

@Ducker there is also the possibility of being let in via the Mexican border, where it's been reported that Ukrainians are being admitted for up to one year. The problem with this is that there's no "official" policy around it, so it's a matter of taking the risk as it could change any day now:

 

 

[Boiler 43,619]

I did come across an update for Afghan Humanitarian Parole.

 

40,000 applied so far 160 approved and just under a 1000 refused

 

At that rate it will take 20 years to just review Afghans 

[millefleur 5,038]

10 minutes ago, Boiler said:

40,000 applied so far 160 approved and just under a 1000 refused

I was not hopeful but those are some truly dismal numbers. If HP does not have any quota, it baffles me as to why so many are being refused.

[Boiler 43,619]

26 minutes ago, millefleur said:

I was not hopeful but those are some truly dismal numbers. If HP does not have any quota, it baffles me as to why so many are being refused.

I have seen a few cases on here and it seemed the premise was Afghans equals HP

 

I believe cases fall down because individual circumstances are not proven to meet the need.

[millefleur 5,038]

9 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I believe cases fall down because individual circumstances are not proven to meet the need.

I looked around a bit and this is what I saw as the reason for refusals. Still nebulous what those "individual" aspects are, curious how they will handle the Ukrainians going through HP. There are many places in Ukraine right now that are probably after than Afghanistan. My friends have relatives hanging out in the countryside where you'd never even know a war was going on.

[Ducker 51]

I have friends and relatives hanging out in the Ukranian countryside and they are getting shelled.

[SalishSea 16,827]

On 3/24/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ducker said:

I have friends and relatives hanging out in the Ukranian countryside and they are getting shelled.

The obvious answer to this is that they are much better off seeking to enter bordering countries as refugees.

[Ducker 51]

On 3/25/2022 at 9:48 PM, Jorgedig said:

The obvious answer to this is that they are much better off seeking to enter bordering countries as refugees.

Yes, when you are getting shelled it is obvious that you need to seek safety, thank you for helping us realize that.

 

My family is mostly in Poland but any comparison to the experience of visa applicants from other countries right now is quite inappropriate.

 

Back to the subject of the thread, visa options, as linked we have discovered that the Tijuana humanitarian parole option for Ukranians is quite valid and we are considering it, thank you.

 

https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/russians-are-blocked-at-us-border-ukrainians-are-admitted/article_14f813c3-4859-5578-b5e8-08a5f4e18eff.html

Edited March 28, 2022 by Ducker

[millefleur 5,038]

5 hours ago, Ducker said:

Back to the subject of the thread, visa options, as linked we have discovered that the Tijuana humanitarian parole option for Ukranians is quite valid and we are considering it, thank you.

That seems to be the fastest way so far. I found some other info about refugees and here's what it says:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/information-for-nationals-of-Ukraine.html

 

Refugee Status

Almost all refugee cases in countries abroad are processed by local authorities or the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).  Ukrainians should not attempt to apply for visas in order to travel to the United States as refugees.  Instead, they should contact local authorities or UNHCR for refugee processing.  Additional information is available from UNHCR : https://help.unhcr.org, including information about non-governmental organizations that may be able to provide additional assistance.  Additionally, USAID’s website has information for Ukrainian refugees: https://www.usaid.gov/usaid-response-ukraine/resources-refugees-asylum-seekers

 

The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Resettlement Support Center (RSC) Eurasia is continuing limited operations from Kyiv and from the sub-office in Chisinau, Moldova.  At present, RSC Eurasia is not conducting any in-person activities, nor scheduling any departures, from Kyiv.  We encourage applicants who are in harm’s way to find safety and shelter wherever possible.  The sub-office in Chisinau can arrange departures for approved Ukrainian Lautenberg applicants who have completed all U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) processing requirements and are physically outside of Ukraine. 

 

If you had an active USRAP case with RSC Eurasia, your case remains active and case processing is continuing, to the extent possible. The current security situation in Ukraine will not have an impact on your USCIS decision or overall case processing. However, we anticipate that some resettlement processing activities may be delayed. We cannot indicate a timeline at this time.  Applicants that were being processed in Ukraine and have changed location and/or departed the country should write to RSC Eurasia and inform the RSC of their new location and contact information. 

 

[Ducker 51]

Lots of developments since this was first posted.  Some acquaintances with 2 family members from Ukraine recently passed through the Tijuana connection with no delay.  However that option is set to close on Monday and we were never comfortable with it for moving 4 of ours.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-launches-new-program-to-welcome-ukraine-refugees-but-no-longer-through-mexico

 

However this new process, open for applications on April 25th, sounds promising.

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/04/21/president-biden-announce-uniting-ukraine-new-streamlined-process-welcome-ukrainians