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26-11-2025
WASHINGTON: Kateryna Golizdra has survived six months in legal limbo, so far. She thinks she can hold out another six months, waiting for Donald Trump’s administration to decide the fate of a humanitarian program that allowed some 260,000 people who fled the war in Ukraine to live and work in the United States.
When her legal status lapsed in May, Golizdra, 35, automatically became vulnerable to deportation. She lost her work permit and was forced to leave a job earning over $50,000 a year as a manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale. Golizdra also lost the health insurance that she used to cover check-ups for a liver condition and she can no longer send money to her mother, who was also displaced and lives in Germany, she said.
The Trump administration’s processing delays on the humanitarian program for Ukrainians launched by former Democratic President Joe Biden left nearly 200,000 people at risk of losing their legal status as of March 31, according to internal US government data reviewed by media. The number of Ukrainians affected by the delays has not been previously reported.
The humanitarian program, introduced in April 2022, allowed nearly 260,000 Ukrainians into the US for an initial two-year period. That’s a small share of the 5.9 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide, 5.3 million of whom are in Europe, according to United Nations refugee figures.
Golizdra said she has no idea when or if her permission to stay in the United States might be renewed, threatening her short-lived sense of security in America.
While she waits for an update on her application, she could potentially be arrested by federal immigration authorities, three former immigration officials said.
The last six months have felt like she is on a “hamster wheel,” Golizdra said.
“It’s a constant stress, anxiety,” she said. “If I will need to leave the States, then I will have to build something again.”
Media spoke with two dozen Ukrainians who lost their work permits and their jobs due to delays in processing renewals, including tech workers, a preschool teacher, a financial planner, an interior designer and a college student. They described digging into their savings, seeking out community support and taking on debt to support themselves while they wait for a decision on their status.
Some of the people interviewed by Reuters said they were worried they could be arrested by US immigration authorities. Others said they were staying indoors, or had left the US for Canada, Europe and South America.
Returning to Ukraine is not an option. Golizdra’s home in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, was set ablaze in March 2022 when Russian troops stormed the city. After Ukrainian forces retook the town, they found hundreds of bodies, including of civilians who were victims of extrajudicial killings.
The Trump administration paused processing applications and renewals of the Ukrainian humanitarian program in January, citing security reasons.
After a contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump said in March that he was weighing whether to revoke the Ukrainians’ legal status entirely, a plan first reported by media.
Trump ultimately did not end the program and in May, a federal judge ordered officials to resume processing renewals but US immigration officials have processed only 1,900 renewal applications for Ukrainians and other nationalities since then, a fraction of those with expiring status, according to US government data released last week as part of a lawsuit.
Meanwhile, a spending package Trump signed into law in July added a $1,000 fee to such humanitarian applications, on top of a fee of $1,325 per individual. (Int’l News Desk)
