United For Ukraine and Expired Ukraine Passport

[Bickel 0]

My Mother-in-law lives in the Russian occupied Eastern Ukraine. To date she has not been willing to leave her home and join us in the US. Now things are getting more serious in her town and she is wanting to leave 

 

The biggest problem we have is her Ukraine Passport expired in March 2023. She cannot get to Kyiv to get her passport renewed.

 

She can exit to Russia but there is no, as we understand, Ukraine consulate support in Russia.

 

Any suggestions on how to get her from Donbas to US?

 

Can she use an expired Ukraine Passport to get to US if our sponsorship is approved?

 

Anyway to get from Russia to Ukraine just using her Ukraine inside passport?

 

Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks much for your attention.

[millefleur 5,046]

Can she go to another country and just renew her Ukrainian passport there? I doubt she will be able to board an international flight anywhere with an expired passport. 

[randomstairs 303]

1 hour ago, Bickel said:

My Mother-in-law lives in the Russian occupied Eastern Ukraine. To date she has not been willing to leave her home and join us in the US. Now things are getting more serious in her town and she is wanting to leave 

 

The biggest problem we have is her Ukraine Passport expired in March 2023. She cannot get to Kyiv to get her passport renewed.

 

She can exit to Russia but there is no, as we understand, Ukraine consulate support in Russia.

 

Any suggestions on how to get her from Donbas to US?

 

Can she use an expired Ukraine Passport to get to US if our sponsorship is approved?

 

Anyway to get from Russia to Ukraine just using her Ukraine inside passport?

 

Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks much for your attention.

That's tough. She can try taking a train to the Estonian border if she can make it to Russia. They should let her in with the expired Ukrainian passport or at least they should let her contact the Ukrainian embassy. Once she's in the EU she can get a new passport and hopefully access to other resources. Best luck to her!

[Bickel 0]

On 7/3/2023 at 12:10 AM, millefleur said:

Can she go to another country and just renew her Ukrainian passport there? I doubt she will be able to board an international flight anywhere with an expired passport. 

That is our fear, that'll she need an unexpired passport. We're hoping we can just get her approved for refugee visa and get her out of there.

 

Thank you for you reply.

[Bickel 0]

On 7/3/2023 at 2:04 AM, randomstairs said:

That's tough. She can try taking a train to the Estonian border if she can make it to Russia. They should let her in with the expired Ukrainian passport or at least they should let her contact the Ukrainian embassy. Once she's in the EU she can get a new passport and hopefully access to other resources. Best luck to her!

That is a possibility I think. She can easily get into Russia. We were hoping to be able to fly her out of Russia to the US with a refugee visa.

 

If that isn't possible, we'll take your advice and try a land crossing. There's so much confused information about if she needs a valid passport to cross from Russia to Estonia or Latvia. If worse comes to worse we'll just try it. The worse that can happen is she's turned back. Thanks for your thoughts.

[millefleur 5,046]

It seems like she just needs to get to a country that has a Ukrainian Embassy and go from there:

https://visitukraine.today/blog/209/what-can-ukrainian-refugees-do-abroad-without-a-valid-foreign-passport

 

It appears many EU countries are allowing Ukrainian refugees to enter with expired passports, maybe contact UNHCR for the country that is easiest for her to get to?

https://help.unhcr.org/greece/about-help-in-greece/for-ukrainians/

[Boiler 45,467]

28 minutes ago, Bickel said:

That is a possibility I think. She can easily get into Russia. We were hoping to be able to fly her out of Russia to the US with a refugee visa.

 

If that isn't possible, we'll take your advice and try a land crossing. There's so much confused information about if she needs a valid passport to cross from Russia to Estonia or Latvia. If worse comes to worse we'll just try it. The worse that can happen is she's turned back. Thanks for your thoughts.

I am not sure what you mean by Refugee Visa, that does not exist now US offers Humanitarian Parole, this used to be pretty quick to get but is now taking much longer.

[randomstairs 303]

53 minutes ago, Bickel said:

That is a possibility I think. She can easily get into Russia. We were hoping to be able to fly her out of Russia to the US with a refugee visa.

 

If that isn't possible, we'll take your advice and try a land crossing. There's so much confused information about if she needs a valid passport to cross from Russia to Estonia or Latvia. If worse comes to worse we'll just try it. The worse that can happen is she's turned back. Thanks for your thoughts.

She can't fly from Russia to the EU nor to the US, no one can. One can fly to Turkey or maybe Georgia, with the new opening, but with the expired passport that may be complicated. A train to Estonia seems like the most convenient option. 

 

As for the US, it may be possible with sponsoring. If she doesn't have anyone in the EU, chances are she could qualify. Best of luck! 

[Boiler 45,467]

She qualifies for U4U, just a question of filing and waiting.

[millefleur 5,046]

3 hours ago, Boiler said:

She qualifies for U4U, just a question of filing and waiting.

Would she be able to board an airplane and presumably transit via other airports with an expired passport? 

 

I agree with @randomstairs that going to Russia seems pointless here. No direct flights out, no Ukrainian embassy there. Best bet seems to be to exit Ukraine into a neighboring country and go from there. 

[Boiler 45,467]

7 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Would she be able to board an airplane and presumably transit via other airports with an expired passport? 

 

I agree with @randomstairs that going to Russia seems pointless here. No direct flights out, no Ukrainian embassy there. Best bet seems to be to exit Ukraine into a neighboring country and go from there. 

The only place she can go to without crossing the front line is Russia.

 

Any place she can fly from to the US will have a Consulate she can update her passport.

[millefleur 5,046]

Russia has direct flights to Turkey and Kazakhstan. Maybe she could look into renewing her passport in one of those countries.

[Boiler 45,467]

1 minute ago, millefleur said:

Russia has direct flights to Turkey and Kazakhstan. Maybe she could look into renewing her passport in one of those countries.

Could she get on a flight with an expired passport?

[millefleur 5,046]

2 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Could she get on a flight with an expired passport?

UNHCR has a specific page for Ukrainians in Russia, might be the best bet to contact about this situation: https://help.unhcr.org/russia/ukrrefugeesinru/

 

I don't know how much they can help but if Russia is the only place she can go at least it makes sense to find out if they can connect her to someone.