Victoria was born in 1997 in Kharkiv. However, since the moment of birth, she had been living in the village of Kovyahy in the Valkiv district of the Kharkiv region. She graduated from the Kovyahy educational complex.
The girl’s mother was undocumented, so the child didn’t receive the birth certificate. So, when it was high time to get a passport, the girl did not exist from a legal point of view, because for all her life she lived without a birth certificate.
In 2018, Victoria turned for help to our colleagues from the Kharkiv office. The first step was to go to court to establish the fact of the birth. Through the painstaking work of the lawyer, together with the help of the Center for Social Services of the Valkiv City Council, enough documents were collected to go to court. In August 2021, Victoria received her first official document – a birth certificate.
The second step was to apply to the Valkiv sector of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region to provide our beneficiary with the document. Due to her mother being undocumented at the moment of birth, it was not possible to prove citizenship. However, since Victoria was born in Ukraine, she has the right to acquire Ukrainian citizenship. However, in order to be able to apply for citizenship, first, she needs to get the status of a stateless person.
Victoria’s application for statelessness was accepted and she received another important document! And although this certificate is not an acquired status, this step brings it closer to resolving the issue of obtaining a long-awaited passport. Victoria already dreams of starting her own family, working officially, and feeling proud of becoming a citizen of Ukraine.
We thank the staff of the Center for Social Services of the Valkiv City Council, Valkiv District Court of Kharkiv region, and the staff of the Valkiv sector of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region for high professionalism, incredible sensitivity, and constant willingness to cooperate to help people!
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