Ukrainian Parolees in North Dakota Losing Ability to Work

Yaroslav Riazanov, left, with his sponsor, Michael Southam. (Michael Standaert/North Dakota News Cooperative via the North Dakota Monitor)

(BY: MICHAEL STANDAERT, NORTH DAKOTA NEWS COOPERATIVE via the North Dakota Monitor) – In mid-June Yaroslav Riazanov’s upended life will change once again.

The 27-year-old who drove trucks and worked construction around Fargo for the past two years as a Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) parolee will no longer be able to work.

Riazanov is fine. He’s in the prime of his life. He has no forthcoming surgery or anything that could make him physically incapable of working.

Only his paperwork will change.

Instead of being a two-year parolee, he’ll move to the limbo of temporary protected status.

While this allows him to stay in the U.S. for potentially another six months, it revokes his ability to work here legally.

Without work, his savings will dwindle, possibly forcing him to return to Ukraine.

Riazanov is one of the 600 to 800 Ukrainians who have settled in North Dakota as part of the U4U program now facing an uncertain future.

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