Oleh Tsoi was born in 1955 in Uzbekistan. There he received a passport of a citizen of the former USSR. For his whole life the man worked in the “House of Communications” – he laid telephone cables and communications.

After moving to Ukraine in 1991, Oleh Moiseyovych’s life changed. The Soviet Union collapsed, all the former republics became independent states, and a man could not exchange an old passport for a new one in Ukraine. There were different reasons for this. Then the situation got even more complicated by the fact that over time, the passport of a citizen of the former Soviet Union was lost. Now the man had no documents at all. Oleh Moiseyovych could no longer go to Uzbekistan because the identity documents were necessary to cross the border.

It took almost three decades to try in vain to obtain Ukrainian citizenship and a passport.

After Oleh Moiseyovych’s appeal to the Charitable Fund “Right to Protection” (R2P) and the UNHCR, specialists of our organization sent multiple inquiries to Uzbekistan and received the necessary documents. Missing references were also collected. Due to changes in Ukrainian legislation in 2021, the man was able to apply to the migration service for recognition as a stateless person.

Now Oleh Moiseyovych hopes that the state of Ukraine will recognize his right to exist and issue him a temporary residence permit so that he could no longer be a ghost in the society!

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