Ukrainian Migrants Find Easier Path to Enter U.S. at the Mexican Border

[TBoneTX 44,672]

Ukrainians and Russians had better show up before the predicted rush of Central Americans...

[millefleur 5,043]

More articles with info for those considering this option:

Growing number of Ukrainians seeking asylum wait at the border

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. – Mexican immigration authorities estimate that about 1,500 Ukrainians are waiting in Tijuana to seek asylum in the United States.

According to Mexican immigration officials with Ayunamiento Tijuana, only about 150 Ukrainians are being let into the U.S daily due to the limited number of Customs and Border Protection officers processing claims.

 

The growing number of Ukrainians at the border has led Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero to open up a gym to allow Ukrainians to stay there while they wait for their name to be called.  About 350 Ukrainians are staying inside the Benito Juarez sports center, said Enrique Lucero with Ayunamiento Tijuana.

 

Read more here: https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/growing-number-of-ukrainians-seeking-asylum-wait-at-the-border/

 

These four Ukrainians thought it would be easy to cross the Mexican border into the U.S. They were wrong.

Maksym Armash, a Ukrainian living and working legally in Virginia, thought it would be simple to bring his Ukrainian bride-to-be into the U.S. 

With his fiancée and two other Ukrainians, he crossed from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, believing that if he were detained by U.S. agents, it would be brief. 

“No one was expecting to be in a jail for 18 days,” Armash said. “No one was expecting this at all.”

Although President Joe Biden has committed to taking in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, hundreds are choosing to illegally cross into the U.S. from Mexico in a desperate attempt to flee quickly and reunite with family.

Read more here: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ukrainians-thought-easy-cross-mexican-border-us-wrong-rcna22067

Camp of Ukrainians at the U.S.-Mexico border swells, as more refugees arrive

TIJUANA, April 1 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Ukrainians are camping in the Mexican border city of Tijuana hoping to seek U.S. asylum, a surge in arrivals just days after the Biden administration said the United States would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing from war.

Many of the Ukrainians escaping the Russian invasion of their home country have flown to the U.S.-Mexico border hoping officials will allow them in so they can reunite with U.S. relatives or friends.

People are spread out on blankets and lawn chairs alongside overstuffed suitcases on a patch of grass near the international port of entry. Some are sleeping in tents and under tarps.

Read more here: https://www.reuters.com/world/camp-ukrainians-us-mexico-border-swells-more-refugees-arrive-2022-04-01/

[Boiler 44,857]

That seems to be historical cases and maybe they sort asylum instead of parole?

 

Seems they are expecting 18000 asylum seekers a day and they can not detain that many

[Lonny&Kris 16]

On 3/25/2022 at 12:29 PM, Lonny&Kris said:

No decisions have been made yet but we do seem to be leaning towards flying to Mexico and trying to enter the u.s that way. We're discussing with our loved ones the logistics of it all and are also waiting to hear back from an attorney. I don't want our case to be negatively affected by this decision if we were to make it. Will post any updates on our situation here. For now, we are waiting for USCIS to hopefully reach a decision on whether or not to expedite our case after our senators office has reached out to USCIS twice. 

Just wanted to post and update for anyone who was interested. I left the U.S to be with my fiancé in Wroclaw Poland, where she fled after the war started. We were together there for about 3 weeks while waiting for results from our expedite request (still waiting, although I'm pretty sure we have to do things differently now).  We both decided to try to cross the Mexican Tijuana border after a family member got in contact with a pastor who was in the news for his church helping Ukrainians cross. We joined a telegram group full of Ukrainians who were asking questions about the process and those who have already crossed. After some discussion about how things work and if we could feasibly make the journey, we started to book our tickets. This part wasn't easy due to travel restrictions and other details that aren't so important. On March 26th until the morning of March 27th, we started booking tickets for March 28th to get from Poland to Tijuana. Not everyone booked there tickets the same way we did, but we took the advice of the telegram group which was to book round trip tickets, and a hotel room in Cancun. The reason we did that is for when we had to talk with Mexican Border patrol at the airport, we could show we had a plan to be there and a plan to return. We chose to go to Cancun like many others because at the time there was a risk if flying directly to Tijuana, that we would be denied entry. Apparently the thinking was it will be more believable to fly into Cancun "for vacation" first. I'm pretty sure this is no longer the case, and it is possible to fly directly to Tijuana (But I can't be 100% sure).  After about 1 day worth of layovers in different airports and about 1 day of flying we arrived in Tijuana at about 5 pm. We were met there by members of different churches who were working together to organize transportation to the border. People with children were prioritized, especially with younger children, and also pregnant women. At around 10 pm, after a few groups before us were transported to the border, it was our turn. We had the option to either wait at the border, or try to arrange a hotel and private transportation the next day, because it was highly unlikely any of us would be able to cross quickly. We chose to go directly to the border and not risk doing things differently,  which could have possibly resulted in an even longer time at the border. The situation at the border was shocking to say the least. I don't know what I was expecting honestly but it was an eye opening experience. The organizers and even some locals did there best to provide food and blankets for people, but people were crammed into this small narrow building that had 1 bathroom without a door handle on it. The floors cement and hard to get any sleep on. I can go into much more detail but will not to keep this long story as brief as possible, just know the situation was far from good or comfortable, and in my humble opinion, borderline inhumane. I can say that it seemed like more supplies were coming as time went on, and they were doing their best to make the situation as comfortable as possible (Children's comfort was also prioritized and most Ukrainians worked together to ensure everyone had what they needed). After staying overnight and waiting about 14 or 15 hours, the group we were assigned to was chosen to go next. We walked out of the refugee camp for lack of a better term, and made our way directly to the border. Here we were chosen in small groups within our group of 30 or so people to interview with the 3 border guards assigned to handle Ukrainian cases. We waited at this border entrance for around 8 hours while many other people were entering in front of us for normal immigrations purposes during this whole time. Finally after so many hours and such a long journey, my fiancé was able to interview with a border guard, while I had to cross through a different area like normal U.S citizens. After about 30 mins of waiting for her, she was granted humanitarian parole and crossed over. We were met by more Ukrainians and church members who helped us arranged 2 nights with a host family so we could avoid spending more on hotels and transportation to the airport. We arrived in my home state of Maine a coupled days ago and are trying to get settled in. We will look into acquiring the services of an immigration attorney soon to see what our next step is to allow her to legally stay here permanently, as I'm pretty sure our current K1 application will no longer be valid. Anyways I'm sorry for such a long post, just thought I'd share some of our story and the information gathered along the way for anyone who was interested. Good luck to anyone attempting to get to the U.S through this method and to everyone who is currently waiting for their cases to move along.

[Boiler 44,857]

12 minutes ago, Lonny&Kris said:

Just wanted to post and update for anyone who was interested. I left the U.S to be with my fiancé in Wroclaw Poland, where she fled after the war started. We were together there for about 3 weeks while waiting for results from our expedite request (still waiting, although I'm pretty sure we have to do things differently now).  We both decided to try to cross the Mexican Tijuana border after a family member got in contact with a pastor who was in the news for his church helping Ukrainians cross. We joined a telegram group full of Ukrainians who were asking questions about the process and those who have already crossed. After some discussion about how things work and if we could feasibly make the journey, we started to book our tickets. This part wasn't easy due to travel restrictions and other details that aren't so important. On March 26th until the morning of March 27th, we started booking tickets for March 28th to get from Poland to Tijuana. Not everyone booked there tickets the same way we did, but we took the advice of the telegram group which was to book round trip tickets, and a hotel room in Cancun. The reason we did that is for when we had to talk with Mexican Border patrol at the airport, we could show we had a plan to be there and a plan to return. We chose to go to Cancun like many others because at the time there was a risk if flying directly to Tijuana, that we would be denied entry. Apparently the thinking was it will be more believable to fly into Cancun "for vacation" first. I'm pretty sure this is no longer the case, and it is possible to fly directly to Tijuana (But I can't be 100% sure).  After about 1 day worth of layovers in different airports and about 1 day of flying we arrived in Tijuana at about 5 pm. We were met there by members of different churches who were working together to organize transportation to the border. People with children were prioritized, especially with younger children, and also pregnant women. At around 10 pm, after a few groups before us were transported to the border, it was our turn. We had the option to either wait at the border, or try to arrange a hotel and private transportation the next day, because it was highly unlikely any of us would be able to cross quickly. We chose to go directly to the border and not risk doing things differently,  which could have possibly resulted in an even longer time at the border. The situation at the border was shocking to say the least. I don't know what I was expecting honestly but it was an eye opening experience. The organizers and even some locals did there best to provide food and blankets for people, but people were crammed into this small narrow building that had 1 bathroom without a door handle on it. The floors cement and hard to get any sleep on. I can go into much more detail but will not to keep this long story as brief as possible, just know the situation was far from good or comfortable, and in my humble opinion, borderline inhumane. I can say that it seemed like more supplies were coming as time went on, and they were doing their best to make the situation as comfortable as possible (Children's comfort was also prioritized and most Ukrainians worked together to ensure everyone had what they needed). After staying overnight and waiting about 14 or 15 hours, the group we were assigned to was chosen to go next. We walked out of the refugee camp for lack of a better term, and made our way directly to the border. Here we were chosen in small groups within our group of 30 or so people to interview with the 3 border guards assigned to handle Ukrainian cases. We waited at this border entrance for around 8 hours while many other people were entering in front of us for normal immigrations purposes during this whole time. Finally after so many hours and such a long journey, my fiancé was able to interview with a border guard, while I had to cross through a different area like normal U.S citizens. After about 30 mins of waiting for her, she was granted humanitarian parole and crossed over. We were met by more Ukrainians and church members who helped us arranged 2 nights with a host family so we could avoid spending more on hotels and transportation to the airport. We arrived in my home state of Maine a coupled days ago and are trying to get settled in. We will look into acquiring the services of an immigration attorney soon to see what our next step is to allow her to legally stay here permanently, as I'm pretty sure our current K1 application will no longer be valid. Anyways I'm sorry for such a long post, just thought I'd share some of our story and the information gathered along the way for anyone who was interested. Good luck to anyone attempting to get to the U.S through this method and to everyone who is currently waiting for their cases to move along.

Always good to have first hand experience thanks for the detailed information 

 

I would recommend marrying and filing to adjust status, sooner the better.  Pretty much what you would have done with a K1 entry

Edited April 4, 2022 by Boiler

[millefleur 5,043]

37 minutes ago, Lonny&Kris said:

We will look into acquiring the services of an immigration attorney soon to see what our next step is to allow her to legally stay here permanently, as I'm pretty sure our current K1 application will no longer be valid.

Thanks so much for sharing your story, that helps us a lot to understand what the experience is. My understanding is that the K-1 is dead as it is merely a visa to enter the country - which she's already done, thus you will need to pursue AOS once you both get married. It will be similar to filing AOS from any other type of visa, such as our forum here has guides on:

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/130-adjustment-of-status-from-work-student-amp-tourist-visas/

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by millefleur

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,082]

4 hours ago, Lonny&Kris said:

We chose to go to Cancun like many others because at the time there was a risk if flying directly to Tijuana, that we would be denied entry. Apparently the thinking was it will be more believable to fly into Cancun "for vacation" first. I'm pretty sure this is no longer the case, and it is possible to fly directly to Tijuana (But I can't be 100% sure).  After about 1 day worth of layovers in different airports and about 1 day of flying we arrived in Tijuana at about 5 pm.

FWIW, there are usually no international commercial passenger flights to or from Tijuana.

 

You have to connect somewhere in Mexico to get there by air.

[Prizm123 1,086]

On 4/4/2022 at 12:02 PM, Lonny&Kris said:

 Good luck to anyone attempting to get to the U.S through this method and to everyone who is currently waiting for their cases to move along.

glad your fiance is safe with you. the good news is that you should now have time to decompress before making your next plans.

[DD13 0]

On 4/4/2022 at 1:02 PM, Lonny&Kris said:

Just wanted to post and update for anyone who was interested. I left the U.S to be with my fiancé in Wroclaw Poland, where she fled after the war started. We were together there for about 3 weeks while waiting for results from our expedite request (still waiting, although I'm pretty sure we have to do things differently now).  We both decided to try to cross the Mexican Tijuana border after a family member got in contact with a pastor who was in the news for his church helping Ukrainians cross. We joined a telegram group full of Ukrainians who were asking questions about the process and those who have already crossed. After some discussion about how things work and if we could feasibly make the journey, we started to book our tickets. This part wasn't easy due to travel restrictions and other details that aren't so important. On March 26th until the morning of March 27th, we started booking tickets for March 28th to get from Poland to Tijuana. Not everyone booked there tickets the same way we did, but we took the advice of the telegram group which was to book round trip tickets, and a hotel room in Cancun. The reason we did that is for when we had to talk with Mexican Border patrol at the airport, we could show we had a plan to be there and a plan to return. We chose to go to Cancun like many others because at the time there was a risk if flying directly to Tijuana, that we would be denied entry. Apparently the thinking was it will be more believable to fly into Cancun "for vacation" first. I'm pretty sure this is no longer the case, and it is possible to fly directly to Tijuana (But I can't be 100% sure).  After about 1 day worth of layovers in different airports and about 1 day of flying we arrived in Tijuana at about 5 pm. We were met there by members of different churches who were working together to organize transportation to the border. People with children were prioritized, especially with younger children, and also pregnant women. At around 10 pm, after a few groups before us were transported to the border, it was our turn. We had the option to either wait at the border, or try to arrange a hotel and private transportation the next day, because it was highly unlikely any of us would be able to cross quickly. We chose to go directly to the border and not risk doing things differently,  which could have possibly resulted in an even longer time at the border. The situation at the border was shocking to say the least. I don't know what I was expecting honestly but it was an eye opening experience. The organizers and even some locals did there best to provide food and blankets for people, but people were crammed into this small narrow building that had 1 bathroom without a door handle on it. The floors cement and hard to get any sleep on. I can go into much more detail but will not to keep this long story as brief as possible, just know the situation was far from good or comfortable, and in my humble opinion, borderline inhumane. I can say that it seemed like more supplies were coming as time went on, and they were doing their best to make the situation as comfortable as possible (Children's comfort was also prioritized and most Ukrainians worked together to ensure everyone had what they needed). After staying overnight and waiting about 14 or 15 hours, the group we were assigned to was chosen to go next. We walked out of the refugee camp for lack of a better term, and made our way directly to the border. Here we were chosen in small groups within our group of 30 or so people to interview with the 3 border guards assigned to handle Ukrainian cases. We waited at this border entrance for around 8 hours while many other people were entering in front of us for normal immigrations purposes during this whole time. Finally after so many hours and such a long journey, my fiancé was able to interview with a border guard, while I had to cross through a different area like normal U.S citizens. After about 30 mins of waiting for her, she was granted humanitarian parole and crossed over. We were met by more Ukrainians and church members who helped us arranged 2 nights with a host family so we could avoid spending more on hotels and transportation to the airport. We arrived in my home state of Maine a coupled days ago and are trying to get settled in. We will look into acquiring the services of an immigration attorney soon to see what our next step is to allow her to legally stay here permanently, as I'm pretty sure our current K1 application will no longer be valid. Anyways I'm sorry for such a long post, just thought I'd share some of our story and the information gathered along the way for anyone who was interested. Good luck to anyone attempting to get to the U.S through this method and to everyone who is currently waiting for their cases to move along.

Congratulations to both of you!

One question, though. My Ukrainian fiance and I are ready to give up on the K-1 process and are considering the Mexico option. I'm worried about the border scenario and, may I ask, can  you tell me the name of the church that assisted you there? I would feel better with some local assistance. Thanks very much and best of luck!

[Lonny&Kris 16]

17 hours ago, Prizm123 said:

glad your fiance is safe with you. the good news is that you should now have time to decompress before making your next plans.

Thank you so much! Yes we are looking forward to some rest before we move ahead with marriage and adjustment of status

50 minutes ago, DD13 said:

Congratulations to both of you!

One question, though. My Ukrainian fiance and I are ready to give up on the K-1 process and are considering the Mexico option. I'm worried about the border scenario and, may I ask, can  you tell me the name of the church that assisted you there? I would feel better with some local assistance. Thanks very much and best of luck!

Thank you! I am pretty sure the church we got in contact with is called spring of life church based in Sacramento I believe. If you call I am sure someone will be able to answer your questions or point you in the right direction for help. There are many churches working together and offering their services to help right now. I heard there are a growing number of Ukrainians waiting at the border, so unless they have added more border guards to help process cases, you may have to wait more than a day at the border, but it could definitely be worth it if you don't want to wait for normal k1 processing times, but that of course is up to you and what you and your partner are willing to endure at the border. 

[DD13 0]

6 hours ago, Lonny&Kris said:

Thank you so much! Yes we are looking forward to some rest before we move ahead with marriage and adjustment of status

Thank you! I am pretty sure the church we got in contact with is called spring of life church based in Sacramento I believe. If you call I am sure someone will be able to answer your questions or point you in the right direction for help. There are many churches working together and offering their services to help right now. I heard there are a growing number of Ukrainians waiting at the border, so unless they have added more border guards to help process cases, you may have to wait more than a day at the border, but it could definitely be worth it if you don't want to wait for normal k1 processing times, but that of course is up to you and what you and your partner are willing to endure at the border. 

One more question, please. I know it is still early, but do you know exactly what humanitarian parole means for her and for her future immigration status?

[Boiler 44,857]

Gets you in for a year during which you can sort out whatever other options you have

[Family 3,832]

7 hours ago, DD13 said:

One more question, please. I know it is still early, but do you know exactly what humanitarian parole means for her and for her future immigration status?

It means she can file for Adjustment of Status ( assuming OP , The Knit in Shining Armor and His Beloved , tie the knot) and show she was “ inspected or paroled” .

 

[Ontarkie 14,133]

~~One post removed for posting 3rd party link.~~

[Boiler 44,857]

CNN covered Ukrainians entering they showed a few hundred waiting their turn and one lady who did get through and was heading for Denver

 

The NGOs were in force and seemed to have everything covered