U4U parole and the work permit expire on separate dates and are renewed by separate filings. What to file, when, and what a lapse costs you.
Reviewed by Ekaterina Fitenko, Esq. — Florida Bar #1064536. With 20+ years of experience in the legal field, she advises Ukrainian and Russian-speaking families across South Florida on parole, re-parole, work authorization and asylum, in English and Russian.
Parole granted under Uniting for Ukraine is issued for a fixed period and it does not renew itself. The end date is printed on your Form I-94 arrival record, and once that date passes without a new grant from USCIS, you no longer hold lawful presence in the United States.
Your work permit is a different document with a different date. The Employment Authorization Document, Form I-766, stops being valid on the date printed on its face. That remains true when your parole period runs longer than the card, and it remains true while a renewal application sits at USCIS unadjudicated.
So two things have to be acted on before they lapse, and they are acted on in two different ways: the parole period, through a re-parole request, and the work permit, through Form I-765. Neither one carries the other.
Look up both dates today rather than from memory. The parole end date appears on Form I-94, retrievable from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection I-94 website using your passport details; the employment authorization date is on the card itself, in the field marked Card Expires.
The parole period and the work permit are granted separately, expire separately, and are renewed by separate filings. Conflating them is the most common reason a Ukrainian family in Coral Springs or Sunny Isles Beach loses the right to work while still being lawfully present.
Parole is permission to be physically present in the United States for a defined period. It is granted as a matter of discretion under section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and it is not an immigration status.
Employment authorization is a second, separate discretionary grant. A parolee applies for it on Form I-765 under eligibility category (c)(11), and USCIS decides how long the resulting card is valid — often a shorter period than the parole itself.
The practical consequence, stated plainly: you can hold valid parole for another eight months and still be unable to work legally tomorrow morning, because the card expired last night.
Re-parole is a new grant of parole for a further period, requested from USCIS before the current period ends. It is requested, not automatic, and no notice arrives to remind you.
The request is made on Form I-131, Application for Travel Documents, Parole Documents, and Arrival/Departure Records, filed with USCIS. Whether a fee applies, whether the filing must go through an online USCIS account, and how far in advance USCIS wants it have each changed since the programme opened. Confirm all three on the USCIS Uniting for Ukraine page on the day you file, not the day you read this.
A re-parole request is not the same thing as a new application. A new Uniting for Ukraine case begins with a supporter in the United States filing Form I-134A, Online Request to be a Supporter and Declaration of Financial Support, and produces travel authorization for a beneficiary still abroad. A re-parole request is filed by the person already in the country, on their own behalf.
Re-parole is also individual. Each family member files a separate request, children included, and an approval for a parent does not extend to a spouse or to a nineteen-year-old son.
File early. There is no grace period built into parole: the day after the end date on Form I-94, the authorized period is over, whether or not a request is pending.
A parolee renews work authorization by filing Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, under eligibility category (c)(11). This is a fresh application each time, and USCIS processing for Form I-765 is measured in months. Check the current figure for your category on the USCIS Check Case Processing Times tool before deciding when to file.
Do not plan around an automatic extension. When a renewal is filed on time, some categories receive an automatic extension of the expiring card under 8 CFR 274a.13(d), and parole-based category (c)(11) is not among those listed there. Verify this on the USCIS page titled Automatic Employment Authorization Document Extension, because the list has been amended by rule more than once.
Filing early matters for a reason that has nothing to do with politeness. A gap in the document is a gap in the right to work even when you remain lawfully present under valid parole. Lawful presence and work authorization are proved by different pieces of paper, and only one of them satisfies an employer.
If you have also filed for asylum, note that an asylum-pending work permit is category (c)(8) and runs on the 180-day asylum clock rather than on your parole. Holding one category does not renew the other, and each is a separate Form I-765.
On the day your Employment Authorization Document expires, your employer is required to reverify your work authorization on Form I-9 using Supplement B. If you cannot present an unexpired document that establishes employment authorization, the employer must stop your employment. This is an obligation on the employer, not a courtesy extended to a good worker.
The lost paycheck is the visible cost. The expensive cost is unlawful presence. Once the parole period ends without a new grant, unlawful presence begins to accrue. Under section 212(a)(9)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, more than 180 days of unlawful presence followed by a departure triggers a three-year bar on returning, and one year or more triggers a ten-year bar.
Time out of status also narrows later options inside the country. Section 245(c) of the Act bars adjustment of status for people who failed to maintain lawful status, with a significant exception at section 245(c)(2) for immediate relatives of United States citizens. Whether that exception reaches your case is answered before the parole lapses, not after.
A person whose parole has expired can also be placed in removal proceedings. Having entered lawfully under a federal programme does not prevent that once the authorized period is over.
Parole is temporary and is not a path to permanent residence on its own. Every green card comes from an independent basis, which a parolee has to build while the parole is still valid.
Asylum is the separate track most of this community should understand first. It is filed on Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, and section 208(a)(2)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act sets a one-year filing deadline measured from your last arrival in the United States. Parole does not pause that deadline and does not extend it. Late filings can still be considered where changed circumstances or extraordinary circumstances are shown, but the exception is argued, not assumed.
Family-based adjustment is available to some parolees for a technical reason worth knowing: section 245(a) of the Act requires that the applicant was inspected and admitted or paroled, and a Uniting for Ukraine parolee was paroled. A parolee who is the spouse, parent or minor child of a United States citizen is an immediate relative and may be able to adjust inside the country on Form I-485.
On the statute passed for this population: the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022 defined a class of Ukrainian humanitarian parolees and made them eligible for federal resettlement benefits on terms comparable to refugees. That is a benefits provision. As of September 2026, confirm the current state of the law before assuming any statute converts Ukrainian parole into permanent residence, because bills proposing an adjustment route have been introduced without becoming law.
Temporary Protected Status for Ukraine is a further, separate track with its own registration windows announced by Federal Register notice. Holding parole does not register you for TPS, and a TPS work permit falls under a different eligibility category on Form I-765. Check the USCIS TPS page for Ukraine for the dates that apply to you.
Leaving the United States ends your parole. Parole authorizes an entry and a period of presence; it is not a re-entry document, and the Form I-94 you hold will not bring you back through a port of entry a second time.
Returning requires a new authorization obtained in advance, typically an advance parole document requested on Form I-131. Even an approved advance parole document is not a guarantee of readmission: the officer at the port of entry decides when you present yourself.
A departure while a request is pending creates its own problem. An application for advance parole is generally treated as abandoned if the applicant leaves before it is granted, and leaving with a re-parole request pending can cost you the request. Ask what happens to each pending filing before you buy a ticket.
Anyone who has filed Form I-589 has a further consideration. Returning to the country you named as the source of persecution is evidence an asylum officer or an immigration judge will weigh against the claim, and it has sunk otherwise strong cases.
Turning 21 does not end a child's parole. Parole is granted individually, and the end date on that person's own Form I-94 is what governs. What changes at 21 is the set of applications the person can be included in as somebody else's dependent.
An adult child files a separate re-parole request and a separate Form I-765. Families discover this late, usually when one card arrives and the other does not.
Where a parent filed Form I-589 while the child was under 21, the child's age for asylum derivative purposes is fixed as of the date the asylum application was filed under section 208(b)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That protection depends on the filing date, which is one more argument for filing asylum well inside the one-year deadline rather than at the end of it.
A spouse or child still abroad who was not part of the original grant is a new beneficiary, and a new beneficiary needs a supporter in the United States to file Form I-134A. No mechanism adds a person to a parole already granted. A child born in the United States is a citizen at birth and needs no immigration filing at all.
As of September 2026, the only durable statement about Uniting for Ukraine is that its terms have moved repeatedly since the programme opened in April 2022. Intake of new cases, the handling of re-parole requests and processing timelines have been paused, resumed or modified by policy announcement rather than by regulation, so they can move again between the day this page was written and the day you file.
We therefore do not treat programme status as a settled fact for any client. Before filing, open the USCIS Uniting for Ukraine page, read the current notice in full, then check the Federal Register for anything published after it. A statement accurate in the spring is not evidence about the autumn.
The mechanism described on this page has not changed: the parole period is fixed, the Employment Authorization Document is separate, and both require an affirmative filing to continue.
No. Parole ends on the date printed on your Form I-94 whether or not a request is pending with USCIS. There is no automatic extension of the parole period during adjudication, so file well before the end date rather than in the final weeks.
No. The Employment Authorization Document stops being valid on the date printed on the card, regardless of how much of your parole period remains. Your employer must reverify on Form I-9 Supplement B on that date and must stop your employment if you cannot present an unexpired document.
Only if your category qualifies for the automatic extension under 8 CFR 274a.13(d), and parole-based category (c)(11) is not on that list. Confirm your own category on the USCIS Automatic Employment Authorization Document Extension page before your card expires.
Often yes, but the options narrow with time: asylum on Form I-589, Temporary Protected Status if a designation covers you, adjustment of status with a qualifying family relationship. Unlawful presence accrues meanwhile under section 212(a)(9)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, so this is a matter of weeks, not months.
No. Departing the United States ends your parole, and the Form I-94 you hold does not readmit you. Returning requires a new authorization obtained before you leave, and even an approved advance parole document leaves the readmission decision to the officer at the port of entry.
Not on its own. Parole is temporary permission to be present, and permanent residence has to come from a separate basis such as asylum or a family petition. A parolee does satisfy the inspected and admitted or paroled requirement in section 245(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which is why an immediate relative of a United States citizen can sometimes adjust status inside the country.
$200 for 30 minutes, in English or Russian. Call (305) 315-3425 or email fitenkolaw@gmail.com to schedule.
This article is informational only and is not legal advice. Form editions, fees and processing times change; confirm current requirements with USCIS before filing. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Fitenko Law PLLC, 11555 Heron Bay Blvd, Suite 277, Coral Springs, FL 33076 (main office); 600 Three Islands Boulevard, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 (by appointment only). Phone: (305) 315-3425. Email: fitenkolaw@gmail.com