It's been two years since 43-year-old Tetiana and her family immigrated to the Dayton area from the war-torn city of Kehrson, Ukraine.
Her family wants to stay in the U.S. for their safety but they have struggled with red tape through the process.
Tetiana lives in an apartment in Kettering with her husband and two teens. The Ohio Newsroom is not using her last name because she fears for her family’s safety.
The family moved to escape conditions in their hometown two miles from the Russian-occupied side of the river. Through her translator Anastasia Nagle, Tetiana shared details about her journey to the U.S. during the war against Russia.
“[We] moved to the west of Ukraine at first when the war started while [my] husband was fighting in the war,” Tetiana said. “And then he got injured and [we] moved here right afterwards.”
The family came legally through a two-year renewable admission program called parole, which is granted to immigrants on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons.
They’re among the estimated 240,000 Ukrainians who received parole as of 2025, when the “Uniting for Ukraine” program was paused. Many, like Tetiana’s family, are stuck in legal limbo, waiting to find out if they’ll be able to renew their parole and remain in the U.S.
“Going back to Ukraine isn't an option for many and for most and going to Europe, a lot of programs have closed and so these people are in limbo. There is no place to go," Tetiana said.
Immigration to the U.S. is a lengthy and sometimes expensive process, whether immigrants are here on Temporary Protected Status or humanitarian parole.
Delays and setbacks with USCIS
For immigrants on humanitarian parole, applications for parole and separate work permits are due every two years. And renewing them isn't easy.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency says it received nearly 16,000 applications for parole in place between April and June of this year and only about 2,000 were approved.
Sometimes approval can take up to 16 months, putting immigrants in a difficult place while they try to work and live in the states.
"America welcomed us, and it was a difficult process getting here and getting settled and starting anew, and now being able to work is so difficult," Tetiana said. "People are afraid to come outside and they don't want to be dealt with by ICE."
On top of that, it costs about $1,000 per person to apply for parole and $280 to apply for the work permit.
Tetiana’s family filed on-time in January and paid those fees. Even then, USCIS initially claimed they never received her payment, even though she had receipts.
While she and her son received initial approval for their re-parole, her husband and daughter are still uncertain of their status.
A 'gentle deportation'
Heather Campbell, an immigration attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, said other Ukrainian immigrants are dealing with similar delays and setbacks.
Her office has worked on about 20 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) cases and 10 re-parole cases for Ukrainians last year.
“That's just a USCIS issue in general, too, with processing the payments and sometimes requesting or returning the applications and saying there's no proof of payment provided with this," Campbell said.
Tetiana said she has heard others in the same boat as her family call this process a "gentle deportation."
“They keep some people in suspense, in this limbo for a year or more, meanwhile people cannot work and so cannot pay to live and are forced to leave," she said.
If their paperwork is not processed in time and they are also forced to leave, Tetiana said she is unsure what they would return to or if their former apartment is even standing.
Tetiana’s translator, Anastasia Nagle, said her own family is currently suffering through living in Ukraine.
"People die in Kehrson every day, every single day," Nagle said. "My aunt lives in Kehrson as well. She's blind, she's alone, she lives alone, her husband died, she's in horrible conditions."
Seeking help from Congress
USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement that "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is actively processing discretionary re-parole cases, including those for Ukrainians, on a case-by-case basis as the law intends. Under this administration, all aliens are undergoing intense screening and vetting to better protect the safety and security of the American people."
Campbell said her office encourages Ukrainian immigrants seeking parole to provide as much evidential proof of urgent humanitarian need as possible for their stay in the U.S.
“Whether it's news articles, letters, messages from people back home, photos, personal stories, showing your ties to the United States and things like that," Campbell said.
Some Ukrainian immigrants have had some success working with congressional representatives to expedite their application process, she said.
"There's so many backlogs for so many application types at USCIS right now. It's hard to speculate the reason," Campbell said. "But I've seen it before where one person has received a work permit and the rest of the family has been stuck waiting for over a year."
Tetiana said her family has reached out to the office of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Dayton) in June in hopes of speeding up their application process.
Turner has supported extending immigration programs like TPS, but Tetiana said staff at Turner’s office said nothing could be done for her family. Turner’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“We provide our documents. Why does it have to be so stressful?" she said. "Why do we have to have so much fear and so much stress and make all these phone calls to senators? Why does that have to be so complicated when it's really actually so simple?"
