US Immigration from Ukraine

What has everyone done? It's impossible to obtain during martial law.

CDC has issued an exception for the pre flight covid test for Ukrainians. With some strange caveats - Ukrainian must be traveling with a US citizen. My question is this. When I read through the attestation that the Ukrainian signs it says that they agree to get fully vaccinated within 60 days of arrival in USA. I am trying to figure out if that means that if the airline will let her on the plane if she is not vaccinated. I can find no other place which states that she does not need to vaccinated. But yet if she agrees to get vaccinated then..... This is part evaluating dumping the k-1 that we started and going with cr1 and what that timeline would look like. I also know that in a rational conversation you might suggest that she go get vaccinated but there is not a rational conversation to be had with her right now.

This is a comment/rant and not a question. Western Union is profiteering from the crisis.

My wife asked me to help send money to family friends that evacuated to Germany from Ukraine. They cannot access their Ukrainian bank account and cannot open a new account in Germany, at least not for the near future (they need to get ID's, a place to stay and residency documents). My wife kept mentioning to use Western Union because that's what her friends recommended, and probably because it's well known.

I saw that WU is offering Zero fees for money to Ukraine. However, it's a trap for 2 reasons. First, the Zero fee is when transferring to UAH. But refugees and evacuees will need the currency of the country they have migrated to, which would be PLZ or CZK or Euros. When I selected Euros to Germany (where my wife's friends ended up), WU charges a fee.

The second and more insidious trap is the exchange rate. When I selected to transfer $1000 US, their exchange rate was 822 Euros. This rate is basically a 10% surcharge of the bank exchange rate of 916 Euros.

For comparison, the same amount ($1000 US) sent via Moneygram would result in 898 Euros to the recipient.

/rant:

At this time, when people are vulnerable and in need of emergency help, Western Union is cashing in on the surge of money transfer activities.

/rant over

For those of you that need to send money, use Moneygram. Or do what we ended up doing: the person my wife's friends are staying with is someone they already knew who lives in Germany. We got their friend's German bank account information and sent 910 Euros via Wise (an online banking/money transfer service). I am sure a similar exchange rate would be available via wire transfers from your US bank to the recipient's bank.

Jenny, my wife, is evacuating Ukraine with a friend (Tanya and daughter) who was recently robbed and does not have a passport.

Her understanding is that Tanya can evacuate with her only by requesting refugee status. She also believes that if she enters as a tourist, they will be separated.

Will Jenny claiming refugee status in Europe effect our I-130 (currently under review at NVC)?

We filed a k-1 application 1 month ago. She is from Ukraine and is now in Poland. She has not and does not want to apply for refugee status in the EU because if things change and she returns to Ukraine she will lose her refugee status. Since refugee is an immigrant process can she apply for refugee status in the US. Come here and at some point we get married.. At that time she loses her refugee status. Will we have to make any visa filings at that time or is it just like marrying anyone in the US. With refugee status does she get a green card and then go down that path to US citizenship? appreciate the advice.