Policy Letter 24-01
May 9, 2024
This policy letter (PL) allows ORR grant recipients to continue to provide ORR benefits and services to certain humanitarian parolees from Ukraine who have a pending or approved re-parole application through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
- Background
In the Additional Ukrainian Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022 (AUSAA), Congress authorized ORR’s parent agency, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), to provide resettlement assistance and other benefits that are available to refugees to specific humanitarian parolees from Ukraine. Eligibility for these parolees is addressed within ORR PL 22-13. Additionally, Congress authorized AUSAA funding for immigration-related legal assistance to eligible humanitarian parolees from Ukraine, which is addressed within ORR’s PL 23-05 (PDF).
On February 27, 2024, USCIS began to accept and consider applications from certain Ukrainian nationals and their immediate family members for a new period of parole, also known as re-parole. A humanitarian parolee from Ukraine who has been granted re-parole retains their initial date of eligibility for ORR refugee benefits and services.
- Authorization and terms of eligibility
This PL allows grant recipients to continue providing services to humanitarian parolees from Ukraine who have filed a re-parole application with USCIS. Individuals must file their re-parole application with USCIS before the expiration of their initial period of parole, or within 30 days of the publication date of this PL, whichever is later.
Grant recipients may continue to provide services even if the individual’s initial period of parole expires while their application for re-parole is pending with USCIS. Grant recipients must later confirm that USCIS approved the individual’s application for re-parole and issued a new period of parole.
Please note that this PL allows grant recipients to continue to serve these individuals. Grant recipients do not need to seek verification of an application for re-parole from individuals who are no longer enrolled in ORR refugee benefits and services.
A humanitarian parolee from Ukraine who has been granted re-parole will be issued a new period of parole from USCIS and retains their initial date of eligibility for ORR refugee benefits and services. They are eligible to access uninterrupted ORR refugee benefits and services throughout their new period of parole, but a new period of parole does not qualify an individual for additional time-limited services, such as Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA), beyond the customary eligibility period as defined in 45 CFR part 400.
- Verification process
- A grant recipient that intends to offer continued services under this PL must verify that the humanitarian parolee from Ukraine filed a re-parole application at least one day prior to the expiration of the parolee’s initial parole period, or within 30 days of the date of the publication of this PL, whichever is later. Grant recipients must review and retain copies of certain documents1 for the case file. Digital copies are acceptable.
- Once the grant recipient verifies that the humanitarian parolee from Ukraine has timely filed their re-parole application, it may continue to provide ORR refugee benefits and services to the individual without interruption.
- New ORR program enrollments are not permitted until the individual’s application for re-parole is approved, and they are issued a new period of parole.
- Some humanitarian parolees from Ukraine may have been un-enrolled from ORR programs but now qualify to be re-enrolled due to the publication of this PL. Grant recipients may re-enroll these individuals and serve them with the same ORR refugee benefits and services in which the individuals were previously enrolled.
- New ORR program enrollments are not permitted until the individual’s application for re-parole is approved, and they are issued a new period of parole.
- The grant recipient must reverify that the humanitarian parolee from Ukraine is approved for re-parole. This verification should take place no later than three months after the expiration of the individual’s initial parole period. Grant recipients must review and retain a copy of certain documents2 for the case file. Digital copies are acceptable. Once the grant recipient verifies that an individual is approved for re-parole, it may enroll the individual in new programs as for any other individual eligible for ORR refugee benefits and services.3
- If an individual’s re-parole application is still pending three months after the expiration of their initial parole period, please reach out to ORR for additional guidance.
- If an individual’s re-parole application is denied, please follow the requirements in section IV.
- If an individual’s re-parole application is still pending three months after the expiration of their initial parole period, please reach out to ORR for additional guidance.
- A grant recipient that intends to offer continued services under this PL must verify that the humanitarian parolee from Ukraine filed a re-parole application at least one day prior to the expiration of the parolee’s initial parole period, or within 30 days of the date of the publication of this PL, whichever is later. Grant recipients must review and retain copies of certain documents1 for the case file. Digital copies are acceptable.
- Requirements if an individual’s re-parole application is denied
If USCIS denies an individual’s re-parole application, and the individual does not have another ORR-eligible immigration status or category,4 the individual is no longer eligible for ORR refugee benefits and services as of the date of the expiration of their initial parole period. Grant recipients must terminate ORR refugee benefits and services immediately and may be required to repay to ORR any identifiable costs, such as direct assistance, distributed or on behalf of the individual from the date of expiration of the individual’s initial period of parole. Note that identifiable costs do not include participation in programs with fixed service costs, such as, potentially, group English language instruction, school programming, or employment orientation.
- Exception for contracted-for services
ORR services initiated by contract for a discrete service and time-period are excepted from this process. Contracted-for services are those that are initiated by a legally binding agreement between the grant recipient and the individual, such as an Individual Development Account (IDA) agreement or Micro-Enterprise Development (MED) agreement. These contracts detail the obligations and performance or non-performance of particular duties, and they identify a discrete service and time-period for the provision of such service. Parties to a contracted-for service may continue with the terms of the agreement if the contract was signed and initiated prior to the expiration of the individual’s initial parole period. There is no requirement for the individual to file for re-parole to continue with the contracted-for service.
Note that this exception only applies to contracted-for services. If a grant recipient wishes to offer a humanitarian parolee from Ukraine additional ORR benefits and services that are not contracted-for, they must follow the process outlined in this PL.
If you have questions about the information contained in this PL or have encountered documentation that you believe, per information from a publicly-available DHS resource, denotes ORR eligibility, contact ORR’s Refugee Policy Unit at RefugeeEligibility@acf.hhs.gov.
Robin Dunn Marcos
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Humanitarian Services and Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement
Footnotes
1 Acceptable documents to demonstrate a pending re-parole application may include, but are not limited to, a copy of the individual’s MyUSCIS online account with case status, a copy of USCIS MyCaseStatus webpage, or a receipt notice of the pending re-parole application with an official filing date.
2 Acceptable documents to demonstrate an approved re-parole application may include, but are not limited to, a Form I-94 with updated Class of Admission (COA) and updated “admit until” date, or approval notice of Form I-131, application for re-parole.
3 The date of eligibility will remain the same, and individuals granted re-parole will not be eligible for an additional amount of time-limited benefits or services, like RCA or RMA.
4 Please see ORR’s PL 16-01 for a list of eligible populations.