Anticipated Reunion Turns Into a Nightmare for Soviet Emigre : Immigration: Several factors have put Naum Avner’s family in limbo as they try to leave the Soviet Union. Officials say the situation is not uncommon.

Naum Avner believed that after a 10-year separation, this Thanksgiving would bring a joyful reunion with his sister, who began the process of immigrating to America from the Soviet Union last June.

Instead, the eagerly anticipated event has turned into a nightmare for Avner, a Santa Monica electrician, his sister, Zina Sokolsky, and her family.

In September, the Sokolskys received exit visas, which required them to give up Soviet citizenship, their jobs and their government-controlled apartment in Kiev.

But because of a fateful combination of miscommunication, Soviet laws and a change in U.S. immigration policy, Zina Sokolsky, her husband, two children and her 85-year-old mother-in-law are stranded in Kiev, nearly out of money to live on, much less to pay for tickets out of the country.

“They are (no longer) citizens there, and they can’t get through here,” said Avner, 57, who became a U.S. citizen five years ago. “How are they going to live? It’s really an incredible situation.”

Using Israeli visas, the Sokolskys had planned to travel from the Soviet Union to Austria and then on to Italy, where they would apply for an American visa at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. That is the route that tens of thousands of Soviets, including Avner, have taken over the years to reach America.

But, overwhelmed with applications from would-be Soviet emigrants spurred to leave by the more liberal travel policies being promulgated under perestroika (restructuring), the U.S government announced in early September that it would no longer accept Soviet citizens who sought entry through the third-country route after Oct. 1. Soviets could qualify only if they had Soviet exit visas before Oct. 1 and Israeli visas before Nov. 6, said Pam Lewis, public affairs officer for the State Department’s refugee programs in Washington.

Avner said the Sokolskys received their Israeli approvals on Nov. 4, only to be told--apparently by mistake--that they were too late to qualify for entry under the third-country policy.

“That is what I am trying to tell everybody,” said Avner, who works at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester. He has written letters to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) and Secretary of State James A. Baker III, but so far has not received a response.

The Sokolskys have not yet been evicted from their Kiev apartment, but “the government is trying to push them out,” said Avner, who spoke to his sister last Sunday. They have enough money to last perhaps through next month, but they cannot get jobs because their work papers were revoked along with their citizenship.

“Without papers, you are not a human being in Russia,” Avner said. “That is the tragedy.”

They are living on the meager savings that they planned to spend on airline tickets. “If they get the OK to go (to the United States), they have no money for tickets,” Avner said, throwing up his hands in despair.

Avner said he does not earn enough to pay for their passage out of the country.

Because they hold Israeli travel documents, the Sokolskys could go to Israel and from there apply for entry to the United States. Or, they could reapply under the new U.S. immigration rules, which require applicants to file forms directly with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

But applying through Israel could take years because of an enormous backlog, Lewis said, while going through the U.S. Embassy could take several months. She noted that more than 100,000 applications from Soviets seeking admission under the new U.S. guidelines have arrived in Washington since early this month. The government expects to admit 50,000 refugees from the Soviet Union this year.

In addition, as of mid-October, a backlog of 25,000 Soviets were awaiting processing in Vienna and Rome, according to Lewis.

An official for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington, who asked not to be identified, said the Sokolskys’ situation is unfortunate but “no different than (that of) the rest of the people on the refugee train” across the world who want to come to America.

Gregory Makaron, president of the Los Angeles-based Assn. of Soviet Jewish Immigrants, said the Sokolskys’ dilemma “is not unique.”

Makaron said there are many families, perhaps numbering in the thousands, who are persona non grata without Soviet citizenship and stuck in the immigration pipeline. “They are hysterical,” he said. “They don’t know what to do. They lost their jobs.

“What is going on in all of this changing policy is that a lot of families are jeopardized,” Makaron added. “They might be qualified (to enter the United States) but there is lot of confusion. . . . It is a very big problem.”

Avner’s latest move was to write a plea for help to former President Reagan, who Avner said helped him get his citizenship papers when bureaucratic snarls caused them to be misplaced several times.

“I’m very upset,” Avner said. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I know my relatives suffer.”