After two weeks, he couldn’t stand by any longer watching news coverage on television. So, he booked a flight to Poland. Following more than 36 hours, he was finally reunited with his family, who’d been seeking shelter in a church basement in Kyiv.
“We spent 10 days in shelter,” said Olga Tymoshonko, Kovalenko’s sister. “My husband stayed to fight.”
Kovalenko, his sister, mother and niece are now together in Lithuania, hopeful to get an appointment at an embassy, after an 18 hour train ride and another 18 hours by car.
“I can’t get through to anybody. I can’t get any information. [It’s] frustrating. I don’t know what to do honestly,” Kovalenko said.
He tried to apply for visas for his family online. Kovalenko even went to embassies in both Warsaw and Vilnius to get answers but was turned away.
“The issue right now is that Ukrainians, unlike a lot of Europeans, require a visa to enter the United States for any purpose,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, the managing director of Immigration Cross Border Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington D.C.
“Most temporary visas, including visitor visas, require you to show that you have a home you don’t intend to abandon and go back to.”
Cardinal Brown has spent her 30-year career in immigration policy, including several years with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Due to COVID-related staffing shortages, there are extensive backlogs of visa applications.
“It can take weeks to months to even get an appointment to apply. So, there are a lot of challenges for Ukrainians who have managed to get out of Ukraine, in Europe, and are looking to come to the U.S.,” she said.
Kovalenko is a U.S. citizen and can apply for green card sponsorship for his immediate family. However, according to Cardinal Brown, that process can take up to two years.
“The refugee process, should they qualify as a refugee, also takes a year to a year and a half and has been disrupted in part because the U.S. was doing refugee processing out of Kyiv. That’s obviously not happening anymore,” Cardinal Brown said.
“Absent the Biden Administration making a path, there’s no right now expedited way for Ukrainians get to the U.S.,” she said.
So far, the Biden administration has authorized millions of dollars in humanitarian financial aid, provided temporary protected status to thousands of Ukrainians already in the U.S., and temporarily halted deportations to Ukraine.
Despite President Biden tweeting, “We will welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms,” Cardinal Brown says that hasn’t happened.
“As of right now, the administration has not taken any specific steps to help Ukrainians ,” Cardinal Brown said.
“They have not opened up any direct pathways for Ukrainians to come to the U.S., even Ukrainians who have family [here],” she said.
Kovalenko and his family will stay in Lithuania for the time being. They may travel next to Frankfurt, Germany, where the processing hub for Ukrainian immigrant visa applications is located.
Although their future is uncertain, they are grateful to be together.
“I’m blessed, happy they [are] here next to me,” Kovalenko said.
Humanitarian parole is another option within the immigration system.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said anyone can file an application, which allows someone with a compelling emergency to temporarily enter the U.S., on a case-by-case basis.
The spokesperson released the following statement to NBC 5:
“We are working to ensure our embassies and consulates in the region have sufficient staff and resources and are prioritizing consular support to U.S. citizens and their immediate family members. We have designated the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt as the processing post for all Ukrainian immigrant visa applications, with the exception of adoption cases, which will be…
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