More than 850,000 Ukrainians last year applied for an American green card, or legal permission to be a permanent resident. The search for better jobs and better lives ranks high as reasons. Currently, only 0.3 percent of America – or roughly 1 million people – are of Ukrainian descent.
America, the world’s largest economy, has a per-capita gross domestic product 15 times larger than Ukraine.
Ukrainians are the most active participants of the green card lottery after Nigeria and Ghana. Almost 9,000 Ukrainians switched their citizenship to American last year, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website.
“The United States is the land of opportunity, which is the major factor for migrating there. Ukrainians choose America not because of money, but because of the opportunities that country provides for applying professional skills,” says Sergiy Marchenko, managing partner at SM Consulting, a Kyiv-based recruiting agency.
Those Ukrainians who managed to get to America and find work sent as much as $750 million in remittances last year back to the homeland, according to Ukraine’s National Bank.
PayPal online payment system co-founder Max Levchin, inventor of the WhatsApp messaging service Jan Koum and Hollywood stars Mila Kunis and Milla Jovovich are among the notable Ukrainian emigrants.
George Kravchenko, 25, followed their path in 2008 and now works as a computer engineer for Eostar, an accounting software producer headquartered in Michigan. He had his first job at Arby’s, a fast-food chain. “It’s impossible to live (in the U.S.) without a car. So you have to pass the driving test and buy a car,” he said. He visited Ukraine last summer but soon felt homesick for America.
Alex Nemesh, 29, went to America with the Work and Travel program and eventually obtained a green card. Now he is working for a car dealer and studies electrical engineering at the University of Buffalo in New York. “Here people treat each other with understanding and respect regardless of nationality. Besides, there are so many immigrants here that everybody just got used to it,” he said.
Elyzaveta Mitina moved across the Atlantic in April after Russia-backed separatists brought war to her home region of Ukraine’s Donbas. “I moved to the U.S. because it’s the birthplace of my youngest child, and here he can get a decent education,” she said.
However, some Ukrainians use a tourist visa to go to America, where they sometimes find illegal employment. There are as many as 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., according to The Economist.
Ruslana Pundyk, in her late 30s, was hired by a restaurant to serve Polish food in America despite having only a tourist visa. She earned enough money to launch her own business after returning to Ukraine’s Chernivtsi and now runs a massage salon. Pundyk laments Ukraine’s corruption and may return to America again. “I have two children and it’s difficult for them to apply their potential (here),” she said.
Most Ukrainians with whom the Kyiv Post spoke said that obtaining work permits and other long-term visas other than tourist was the biggest challenge. It requires time, money and sometimes a good lawyer.
“I spent three years to get my visa,” says Pundyk, while Nemesh from Buffalo adds: “It took several years and thousands of dollars.”
Many regard U.S. President Barack Obama’s immigration policy as welcoming to newcomers. But in June, Vice President Joe Biden, on a visit to Central America, emphasized that that there is no open-door policy. “We’re going to send the vast majority of you back,” he mentioned in his speech, in response to the influx of illegal immigrants to America from the region.
Kyiv Post staff writer Iana Koretska can be reached at [email protected].
