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Messenger Another severe blow for Ukrainians was 2022, which brought radical changes for people fleeing the full-scale war with Russia. At least over 7 million people have left Ukraine. The overwhelming majority are seeking refuge in Europe, but the number of those wishing to obtain American asylum has not decreased.
Currently Ukrainians do not have a relatively simple way to enter the United States, despite the White House’s announcement of readiness to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Ukrainian citizens can pursue relocation to the U.S. by using the EXPEDITE REQUEST procedure — expedited petition processing for those who have relatives.
This option implies that a family member lives in the United States who has residency with a GREEN CARD, whose petitions are under review, or who has U.S. citizenship, i.e., is a taxpayer. The first step for expedited petition processing is its filing (Petition I-130) with the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy for the following categories of family members:
- For U.S. citizens – spouses, children under 21 years of age, parents.
- For GREEN CARD holders – spouses, children under 21 years of age.
USCIS application process
To obtain information about filing an EXPEDITE REQUEST petition, a U.S. citizen or resident should contact the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at 1-800-375-5283. Then strictly follow the voice message instructions and connect with an operator. It is important here to emphasize the key phrase of the request – “EXPEDITE REQUEST”.
You can use the USCIS website at the link my.uscis.gov.
Filing an EXPEDITE REQUEST on the official site
A petitioner who wishes to file a petition for a relative can proceed as follows: go to the official U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website – www.uscis.gov – and complete the procedure in several steps.
- Go to your profile and in the search bar enter – “Expedite Request”. In the upper right corner of the page, a window “Ask Emma” will appear, which will help submit a request for expedited petition processing.
- In the opened window select “Expedition Request”. After that the system will ask you to choose a specific category. Select Green Card.
- Then you must answer the question: “Is your petition under review at USCIS?”. Answer “Yes”.
- Fill out the questionnaire section about the petitioner who filed the petition that needs to be expedited – enter the petitioner’s date of birth and address.
- Next, in the window you must enter the receipt number received after filing the petition. You can find it at the top of the receipt, in the left corner (usually the first letters of this code are WES).
- Once the system finds the case, it is important to provide a justified reason for why expedited processing is required. For this, in the “Urgent Humanitarian Need” section, in the comments field type “Due to ongoing war at the territory of Ukraine the beneficiary’s life and health is in imminent danger”.
- Usually, after successfully completing all steps the request should be accepted and reviewed in the near future.
Guarantees of the expedited procedure
No one can give a 100% guarantee of expedited processing. But the fact is that when you make a request for expedition, you are asking USCIS to place your case at the front of the list, to give it special attention so it can be processed quickly. And most importantly, make sure that all required documents for filing with USCIS have been provided completely and correctly.