US Immigration from Ukraine

I was browsing USCIS site for something else but checked the United for Ukraine page and noticed some updates:

1. Effective Nov 21, beneficiaries paroled into the US under U4U are employment authorized incident to parole.
2. Effective Nov. 21, USCIS is exempting fees automatically for initial applications for EAD (I-765). This has to be filed by paper.
3. Effective Dec. 5, the fee exempt I-765 can be submitted online.

https://www.uscis.gov/ukraine (After the Beneficiary Is Paroled into the United States section)

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Employment Authorization

Effective Nov. 21, 2022, beneficiaries paroled into the United States under Uniting for Ukraine are employment authorized incident to parole. This means that if you are paroled into the United States under Uniting for Ukraine, USCIS does not need to approve your application for employment authorization before you can work in the United States. Your unexpired Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, with a class of admission (COA) of UHP is an acceptable List A document that shows your identity and work authorization for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.

Within 90 days of hire (or in the case of reverification, the date employment authorization expires), you must provide your employer either:

• Your unexpired Form I-765, Employment Authorization Document (EAD); or
• Your unrestricted Social Security card and a List B identity document from the Form I-9 Lists of Acceptable Documents. (Note: A Social Security card that contains no employment restrictions is not available to individuals who are parolees and are not admitted to the United States on a permanent basis. See the Social Security Administration s Types of Social Security Cards webpage.)

Individuals who received their Form I-94 at the time of their parole into the United States should visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Form I-94 website to view and print a copy of their Form I-94.

For more information, please see Employee Rights and Resources on I-9 Central.

Fee Exemption for Initial EADs

Effective Nov. 21, 2022, USCIS is exempting the fee to file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, for initial EADs for individuals paroled into the United States under Uniting for Ukraine who file by mail. To apply for discretionary employment authorization, you must submit Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, using the (c)(11) category code. You do not need to pay a filing fee for your initial EAD. Beginning Dec. 5, 2022, you may file your fee exempt Form I-765 online.

To obtain the fee exemption when filing Form I-765 online to request an initial EAD:

• In the basis of eligibility section, provide your eligibility category ;
• For the category under which you are applying, select c(11) Ukraine Parole from the drop-down;
• Select your reason for applying as Initial permission to accept employment ; and
• Review and submit application to receive $0 fee.

To obtain the fee exemption when mailing a paper Form I-765 to USCIS to request an initial:

• Select Initial permission to accept employment (Part 1, Item 1.a.) ;
• Enter Ukraine in:
  • Country of Citizenship (Part 2, Items 18.a. and 18.b.), and/or
  • Country of Birth (Part 2, Item 19.c.);
• Enter C11 in the Eligibility Category (Part 2, Item 27.); and
• Submit no payment.

Note: For the fee exemption to apply, Form I-765 must be postmarked on or after Nov. 21, 2022, or submitted online on or after Dec. 5, 2022.

Hey,

Me and my husband are very confused at the moment. We are currently in the process of i-130 and i-485 and had a status of our Case being actively reviewed since October 2022.

On 20th of Dec we've received RFE requesting Medical i-693 and any other additional evidence of our marriage (if applicable). We've send a package with Medical and other docs that we obtained since initial application on 12th of Jan (a week before the dead line). One of the things worth mentioning, is that this RFE came from the local office already and never appeared on my USCIS account as a status or in document section.

We were waiting for their decision or any response (but were aware that it might take up to 2 months).

BUT on 28th of Jan I've updated my USCIS status and under my i-485 it said that "Request for Initial Evidence Was Sent" as of 28th of Jan. When I looked into the document that appeared on 30th, it was 100% identical RFE (only with different dates of issue 20th of Dec vs 28th of Jan) that we received in December and responded to 2 weeks ago. But this time it does appear as a status on the website (but no physical RFE was received so far).

We did call their customer support and they supposedly assigned a person to our case to double check and see what we have to do with it (we haven't heard back yet).

So I was wondering if anyone else here faced this type of situation... and received 2 identical RFEs within 1 month pretty much? Since we are concerned if they lost our package with Medical (even though it was received based on the USPS status of the package) or it's some kind of glitch

Our timeline:

Applied (i-130, i-485 etc) - September

Biometrics - October

Medical RFE - 20th of Dec

Response to Medical RFE - 12th of Jan (Deadline was 20th of Jan)

Identical Medical RFE appeared on the USCIS website - 28th of Jan (no physical RFE received)

Greetings everyone!

I would appreciate your advice/thoughts on the following issue. TL;TR: should a Ukrainian with J1 status extension attempt to stamp it abroad?

I'm a Ukrainian who is on J1 as a research scholar at a large US academic clinic since mid-March 2022. I got my J1 a month before the war started last year in Kyiv, Ukraine. I recently got my program extended for another year to finish my project. I received my DS-2019 last week, which I know allows me to stay in the US for my next year at the clinic. I have a couple of important international conferences coming up next year, attending which would really advance my career prospects (I really want to attend them). In addition, part of my family relocated to Canada. Therefore, I would very much like to be able to travel and re-enter the US and was initially intending to stamp the visa.

Here are relieving factors:

• My sponsor is one of the largest clinics in the US;
• I've been in good standing and did not violate any J1 regulations;
• I have my parents left in Ukraine, along with some property (car, apartment in a joint ownership, quite a solid sum on Ukrainian bank accounts), which could be use for connection to homeland statement.

However, here are the problems:

• I cannot apply in Ukraine because the US Embassy doesn't process any visas at the moment - I'll need to apply abroad, most likely either Mexico or Canada;
• Since I apply abroad, 99.9% I will get interviewed;
• If so, it will be still challenging for me to prove nonimmigration intents since I am (1) from a country affected by war, (2) single and only have my parents left in Ukraine.

... and I also read that if I'm refused the stamp, I will not be able to go back to the US even if I will be traveling from Mexico or Canada and my DS-2019 will be to-date.

Another factor, importance of which I struggle to assess, is that I've recently got Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET). I applied this summer, when I didn't expect the program extension yet but part of my family had already relocated to Canada. I got a notification that my application has been processed a day after I got my new DS-2019 form. CUAET grants an extended temporary status for Ukrainians (a visitor status first, which one can extend to temporary resident and then to permanent resident under certain conditions). I wonder if it would be considered as a red flag for immigration intents.

I know that nobody can predict whether or not I get rejected at the interview. I would like to get your opinion on the situation overall: being in such situation, would you attempt stamping the visa? Are my worries well-grounded or I put way too much weight on some of them?

Thank you a lot for getting to the end and even more thank you for your opinion!

Hey folks,

My Ukrainian family entered the U.S. last year as humanitarian parolees and were granted 1-94 cards. We are going through the I-485 process, however the I-94s will expire in April. I believe we need to file I-539s to extend their status but am not certain. The instructions list those who should file and I don't really see our category.

Can anyone clarify this for me?

Thanks!

Has anybody heard how long it has been taking to get your 10 year card once you send off you I-751? I have heard conflicting stories of 2 years.