Longshot question, but has anyone ever sponsored a refugee or humanitarian parolee?

[Scobrey]

So in a nutshell, my wife wakes me up this morning by telling me she got a 3AM message from Ivanka asking if she and her kid can come here. Ok, not that Ivanka.

Wife still has family in Ukraine, specifically in Lviv and just outside of Kyiv. She's been in relatively regular communication with them, taking into consideration what's going on. Even though the news has mostly forgotten it's going on, it's apparently going from bad to worse.

So her cousin, Ivanka, contacts her today and asks for help coming here. This is the first time any of the family has acted anything other than F Putin we are going to win. There has been some showing of concern, but never any "we need help." Obviously we will try to do this the right way, which involves lots of paperwork etc. Has anyone here done this before and if so do you have any tips?

I'm not looking to start any kind of immigration argument etc, just looking for pointers if anyone has done this. Feel free to PM me if you prefer.

And yes, walking across the southern border with the 10s of thousands of others is a last chance option. I wouldn't want my wife and daughter trying that alone, so it's a last resort.

 

[PaulinKansas]

Google Ukraine Take Shelter. I listed a property on that website. It'll sleep 2-3 families with up to 11 people.

 

[nobands]

Well since it's family , do the right thing
Doubt she'd be asking if it wasn't necessary.

 

[Close Shot]

We need pictures of Ivanka to properly analyze this decision for you.

Just joking and do anything for family that you can without hurting your own. They need you and if the situation was reversed, you would want them there for you. My only advise was realize this is likely going to cost you a lot of money, especially if they are here a while. Don't let that sway your decision but keep it in mind. Good luck.

 

[HaydenHunter]

I saw the title of the thread and thought it was a very "PaulinKansas" type of thread. Haha, wouldn't you know he is already in the "helping Ukranian refugee" market with his housing offers.

 

[PaulinKansas]

I saw the title of the thread and thought it was a very "PaulinKansas" type of thread. Haha, wouldn't you know he is already in the "helping Ukranian refugee" market with his housing offers.

The 40 billion in Ukrainian aid is paying for Ukraine to hire mercs and to house their refugees in other countries. AirBnB is sort of promoting this.

 

[eugene molloy]

Has anyone ever sponsored a refugee or humanitarian parolee?​

Not through any official channels, but yes, we've offered a helping hand and a roof to some as needed it.

Can't believe this is even a question when family are involved, unless the US forbids it. If so, it's time to break some rules.

 

[Scobrey]

Let me clarify. Has anyone gone through the state department process? If so, do you have any advice on navigating the red tape etc. Place to stay and financial support is in place with the family. The getting into the US is the issue at hand.

 

[Vahunter]

Yes....sort of.
My DIL is Korean. My son got hurt in Korea several years' ago and it was apparent he'd convalesce better here. So DIL's process was expedited. She had interviews and applications with DHS and State Dept in Korea. The process cost a little bit. My wife and I were there and of course our son could help her. We had to explain the nature and purpose of some of the questions to her. As I recall, she did the applications on her smart phone. In fact, she did the State Dept application while she and I rode the bus to our embassy in Seoul......
She got her immigrant's visa before she came and her green card came to our house while they were staying with us.
She wasn't a refugee so the process my be different. And her English is pretty good which helped.
PM me if you need to.
Good luck.

 

[DisplacedDuck]

Anyways, back to the matter at hand.. A ton of big law firms are doing temp visa or refugee work pro-bono (free) since there are so many Afghani "parolees" in the states currently. I bet if you called a law firm in the area and asked for pro-bono temp visa work for a Ukrainian family member, they'd know someone or some firm doing that line of work for the Afghanis. Call the bigger law firms in the area, they're the ones most likely doing that pro-bono work.