Top Ten Things to Know about Immigrant and Refugee Processing for Ukrainians
1. Currently, no consular services are being provided in Ukraine.
2. If you have a pending immigrant visa application scheduled for processing in Kyiv, U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt is the designated processing post for all Ukrainian immigrant visa applications except for adoption cases.
3. Immigrant visa applicants who received an NVC case number and have supplied all supporting information to become “documentarily qualified” will receive notice of Frankfurt appointment in the coming months. Those who are not yet scheduled and would like to transfer their case somewhere other than Frankfurt should follow the directions provided on the State Dept. website.
4. If you wish to request expedited processing of a family-based petition, you may have pending, meaning it has not yet been approved; please visit the USCIS website to learn how to order expedition.
5. U.S. citizens who are physically present overseas with immediate family members and have yet to file an immigrant visa petition with USCIS, may request to file an I-130 immigrant visa petition at the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate that processes immigrant visas. This applies only to U.S. citizens physically present in that consular district filing petitions for their spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents who have fled Ukraine.
6. If you already have received approval of your I-130 petition from USCIS but have not yet been scheduled for an appointment in Frankfurt, NVC may be able to expedite processing of your case.
7. The Department is actively working with Adoption Service Providers (ASPs) to provide guidance and answer questions during this critical time. Prospective adoptive parents should consult their ASP about how the crisis in Ukraine may impact their adoption plans.
8. Humanitarian Parole is a program run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that allows an individual who may be inadmissible or otherwise ineligible for admission into the United States to be in the United States for a temporary period for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. It is not meant to replace a visa process. Anyone can apply for humanitarian parole.
9. 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 to travel to the United States as refugees. Instead, they should contact local authorities or UNHCR for refugee processing.
10. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has exercised its enforcement discretion to allow certain persons from Ukraine to travel to the United States without a pre-departure COVID-19 test until April 1.