TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Thursday marks two years since Larysa Chernytska and her daughter arrived in Topeka from western Ukraine. Her paperwork expired Wednesday, and without it, she can’t work.
The nonprofit that helped her and others get here says it’s caught off guard by the problems.
In the two years since Chernytska and her daughter left Lviv, Ukraine, for Topeka, they’ve built community at church, work and school.
Larysa continued her 20-year career as an EL teacher in the Topeka Public School District. This was her first year as a certified teacher.
The job brought stability to her family and their finances, and provided a foundation for her daughter to make plans for the future.
“I really want my daughter to graduate with her school, with her classmates,” Chernytska said. “I think this is at least what I can do as a mom, just to provide this kind of stability, you know, and safety for her. So she could feel that she lives a normal, you know, school girl’s life.”
She now faces the possibility of having to leave the U.S. Her legal status expired Wednesday and she says the process to renew her paperwork is delayed.
Yana Ross with Top City Promise says other refugees are in the same situation.
“It seems like some families are lucky with their paperwork and it goes smoothly from the beginning to the end. And it all depends on when they arrived to the United States,” Ross said.
Chernytska and her daughter are one of 70 families — roughly 200 individuals — Top City Promise helped to flee the war in Ukraine.
Those who arrived earlier were able to apply for temporary protective status. Others who arrived later, like the Chernytskas, were granted humanitarian parole, which gives short-term permission to live and work in the U.S.
Chernytska says the parole renewal she applied for hasn’t yet come through.
“And if re-parole paperwork is stuck, then a lot of those families, like Larysa, get in a position where they lose work authorization. And so they are not able to work, they lose income, and they just know where to go,” Ross explained.
Ross says the situation is complicated by ongoing conflict.
“Ukraine is still at war. Europe is still full of refugees and not many countries accepting new refugees. So it’s difficult,” Ross said.
“That complicates everything. Absolutely everything. This just turns everything upside down,” Chernytska said. “People keep asking me, what is your plan B? I honestly say that I have no plan B.”
For now, all Chernytska can do is wait. She says she can make it a few months on her savings and holds out hope that something will happen in her favor.
Representative Derek Schmidt said his office is in contact with Citizenship and Immigration Services and has asked these cases to be expedited.
Top City Promise says it’s renewing its efforts to support these refugees.
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