Kharkiv, 1998. Olesya, a girl from Uzbekistan, gives birth in a maternity hospital. She is young, scared, and does not have a passport. A boy named Timur is born. Being in such a difficult situation, Olesya decides to give a fictional surname to the boy to receive the birth certificate for him.
Later, when her son turned 18, Olesya received Ukrainian citizenship. Unfortunately, due to coming of age, the young man was no longer able to acquire citizenship with his mother. They then tried to apply to the migration service at their place of residence. And only then Olesya and Timur understood the complexity of this situation. According to the documents, the boy had a fictitious surname, so Olesya was not considered his mother under the law.
In 2018, the family turned to our colleagues in Kharkiv for help. With the help of an R2P lawyer, Olesya’s motherhood was established in court and the new birth certificate for Timur was obtained. Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem of Timur’s citizenship. So the boy had to wait patiently for the opportunity to apply for recognition as a stateless person. In early November 2021, the following opportunity occurred: the Kholodnohirsk branch of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region accepted his application, and the applicant was issued a certificate – the first official document proving his identity.
Also, our lawyer gathered enough evidence and proved in court the grounds for Timur to acquire Ukrainian citizenship by territorial origin. The court decision has already come into force, so after receiving the decision to recognize Timur as a stateless person, he will immediately apply to the Migration Service with a request to acquire Ukrainian citizenship to finally get the dream passport.
And we, for our part, will accompany and support him on this path. Good luck to all of us in this difficult matter!
Once again, the CF “Right to Protection” (R2P) is happy to express sincere gratitude to the Migration Service of the Kharkiv Region for its continued support in all the efforts and initiatives to help people, as well as for effective cooperation in the difficult way of documenting the stateless persons.
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