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Comment by smt88 | Hacker News Reader

I have an employee who has 4 kids and a sick wife. We already pay him a good US-level salary, but I'd be happy to pay a few extra tens of thousands to help them immigrate.

I don't even know where to start. Can they get across a border? Can they board a plane? How do I help?

I'm terrified and sad for everyone there.

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Ideas:

(1) Help them locate countries that they can travel to.

(2) Arrange local accommodations in hotels/apartments so they have a place to stay when they arrive.

(3) If you have not done so already, get a Brex virtual credit card in their name that they can use to pay expenses once they are out. Paypal is another way to move funds that does not require a bank account. There are many others.

They are going to try to get to Romania or Poland. I have contacted an immigration lawyer to see if we can sponsor them and bring them to the US.

> If you have not done so already, get a Brex virtual credit card in their name that they can use to pay expenses once they are out. Paypal is another way to move funds that does not require a bank account. There are many others.

This is interesting. Why do you recommend this? Because you expect Putin to shut down their banking infrastructure?

We are not confident that it will be possible to get money out of Ukrainian banks. (Due to attacks physical and virtual on infrastructure.)

Edited: added sentence

Right now, many feel it is too late to leave, and that it is safer to stay than to leave. The roads are blocked, lines for fuel are huge (and fuel is running out). I wish my family had left sooner.

That's helpful. It's hard to know from here which decisions are better or worse.

I'm sorry to hear about your family and hope that they stay safe. You must be absolutely wracked with anxiety. I am too, and I don't even have any family there.

Borders are open and they can cross without any visa. Russia is spreading some fake news about closed borders. There is a list of reception points in Poland (some are walking distance from the border) in case they have problems with finding accommodation:

https://www.gov.pl/web/udsc/ukraina-en (English)

https://www.gov.pl/web/udsc/ukraina---ua (Ukrainian)

[edit] looks like Ukraine doesn't allow men aged 18-60 to leave the country: https://espreso-tv.translate.goog/cholovikam-gromadyanam-ukr...

Honestly men of fighting age are probably better off going through Russian controlled points than Ukrainian as terrible as that sounds Russians are most likely to let people leave so they don’t have to fight them later

Ukrainian air space is closed at the moment. He would have to leave the country by land first.

That's what I was thinking. He's just a bit southwest of Kyiv, so it might be impossible to get all the way to a safe border soon. I'm sure there are lots of people escaping now.

Train to Lviv, take a cab, cross the border to Rzeszow (Ukrainians are allowed to enter EU for 90 days,) take a train to Warsaw, fly wherever you want.

That is extremely helpful. Thank you.

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