As Canada plans cuts to immigration, Ukrainian households say they’re anxious and “disoriented” after getting combined messages about their everlasting residency purposes below a particular humanitarian pathway to reunite households fleeing warfare.
Some candidates allege Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) “misplaced” their purposes, and query Canada’s dedication to proceed supporting Ukrainians because the warfare rages on in Ukraine and Russia.
“It worries me very a lot as a result of it is as soon as once more interruption of guarantees,” stated Eugenia Pynchuk, a Canadian citizen, as she sat subsequent to her father. Her dad and mom are at the moment in Ottawa below a customer visa that is set to run out subsequent 12 months.
Pynchuk’s dad and mom left behind their dental manufacturing enterprise in Kharkiv, and final January utilized for everlasting residence (PR) below a more recent Ukrainian household reunification stream. The favored Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Journey (CUAET) program resulted in 2023 and welcomed about 300,000 Ukrainian nationals.
The momentary PR stream aimed to “construct on Canada’s dedication” to reunite households and permit Ukrainians to proceed constructing their lives right here if they’ve household who’re Canadian residents or everlasting residents.
That pathway opened in October 2023 and closed a 12 months later, however knowledge from September 2024 launched in response to an entry to data request reveals there had solely been 135 admissions that 12 months. The division additionally reached 191 remaining choices and had about 17,438 purposes ready to be processed.
In the meantime, the identical dataset reveals different momentary streams below humanitarian and compassionate pathways — reminiscent of these for residents from Hong Kong and the Americas — had hundreds of purposes processed over the identical interval.
CBC requested IRCC for up to date numbers nevertheless it didn’t present them by deadline.
Pynchuk stated a 12 months after making use of, her dad and mom have but to obtain an “acknowledgement of receipt” (AOR) — an official doc marking the beginning of the method.
Pynchuk stated when she checked in with IRCC all year long, she was generally informed her dad and mom’ utility was seen within the system, however at different occasions “they can not see something in any respect.”
“It is actually tough to go by all worry, all stress of warfare, survive … [then] arrive right here and simply be caught within the deadlock, in limbo,” Pynchuk stated.
Pynchuk stated her dad and mom are desirous to work in Canada however cannot get a piece allow but. She stated she’s feeling the financial pressure, paying hundreds each few months for his or her personal medical insurance coverage.
Her father is equally pissed off.
“[It] seems like [I’m] caught and [I] cannot resolve any points right here … cannot resolve any points in Ukraine,” stated Vitalii Pynchuk in Ukrainian, interpreted by his daughter.
He stated it has been painful to be unable to return to Ukraine to rearrange a correct burial for his mom, who died throughout the warfare. He additionally worries for his enterprise, which has been frozen since their sudden departure.
‘They don’t see that utility within the system’
“When an applicant inquires with IRCC … [they] responded they don’t see that utility within the system in any respect,” stated Oleh Zadoretskyy in Halifax. His household got here to Canada below the CUAET visa in March 2023, then utilized for PR below the household reunification stream as his spouse’s sibling is Canadian.
Zadoretskyy has been monitoring the purposes of dozens of households, and stated they consider a number of had been “dropped from the queue” or “misplaced.” A bunch of hundreds of candidates has been sharing their tales on Telegram. They’ve additionally petitioned the immigration minister, MPs and the media, to little avail.
Just like the Pynchuks, Zadoretskyy stated many candidates nonetheless have not acquired their AORs.
“It made us really feel left behind,” he stated.
Zadoretskyy defined that because the candidates’ Ukrainian passports and Canadian work permits close to expiry, they’re scrambling for solutions.
Due to a current Ukrainian coverage requiring males ages 25 to 60 to register with the military when accessing embassy services such as passport renewal, many worry they’re going to be compelled again residence to combat.
Lyudmyla Savyelova, a Canadian who lives close to Montreal, stated her sister’s household utilized final January and was informed a number of occasions all through the summer season that IRCC brokers could not discover her utility within the system. Her MP acquired the identical response, and in an e-mail, urged they reapply.
CBC has heard from a couple of dozen others with comparable tales. Some marvel if it is because of a technical glitch, or as a result of the program has been deprioritized.
“This reveals a whole lack of group and order in processing these recordsdata. Persons are disoriented,” stated Savyelova in an e-mail to CBC.
“Purposes are misplaced and disappear within the system. Persons are anxious.”
On Jan. 7, CBC requested the immigration minister’s workplace and IRCC for an interview. Regardless of being granted extensions IRCC didn’t present solutions to questions nor up to date processing numbers for the Ukrainian household reunification PR pathway by deadline.
Within the U.S. final week, President Joe Biden’s administration extended temporary protected status for greater than 100,000 Ukrainians already dwelling there, amongst different nationals. This comes barely per week earlier than president-elect Donald Trump takes workplace, and in anticipation of his hardline immigration insurance policies.
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