Ukrainian nationals fleeing the ongoing war in Ukraine arrive at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, on May 29, 2022.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
The federal government is allowing more Ukrainians fleeing the war to enter Canada this year while making it easier for some of those who have already arrived to stay longer, including some whose status was set to expire next year.
The government announced new measures last week after months of uncertainty about whether it would extend the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program (CUAET), which has allowed about 300,000 Ukrainians and their family members to enter the country in the past two years with a deadline of March 31 for successful applicants.
In April, the arrival deadline for Ukrainians and their family members whose CUAET applications were approved on or after Feb. 4 was extended to July 31 – and now it has been extended again to Dec. 31. Everyone who arrives under the CUAET is eligible for a three-year open work or study permit upon arrival.
As well, the government says CUAET applicants who arrived before March 31 can apply to either extend their study or work permits or obtain new three-year permits by March 31, 2025. While this was also allowed under the previous policy, some Ukrainians said they were unaware of this and have been concerned about what they would do once their initial three-year work permit expired, which for many was set to happen next year.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in March that he had no plans to extend the deadline for Ukrainians arriving under the CUAET program.
Michelle Carbert, the spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said the new policy is not an extension of the CUAET program, “but rather additional measures to support those who came to Canada under the CUAET by March 31, 2024.”
Applications for visas under the CUAET program closed in July last year and that has not changed.
Ukrainians who fled to Canada have been advocating for a streamlined pathway to permanent residency, saying many of their ranks don’t qualify for the existing programs, including the Ukraine family reunification pathway introduced last October. Another issue facing Ukrainian men eligible for military service is that they can’t renew their passports abroad, which prevents them from staying in Canada on work permits after their passports expire.
Toronto immigration lawyer Lev Abramovich applauded the recent federal announcement.
“I think it’s pragmatic, it’s beneficial, given the number of people in Canada and the fact that the war is still raging,” he said.
Oleksandr Perederenko, who has lived in Montreal for two years with his wife and three children, said the possibility of having to leave Canada next year took a toll on his mental health.
“My hair was turning gray with thoughts of where I would flee again with my family if my work permit expired,” said Mr. Perederenko, who works as a maintenance assistant at a rental company. “This decision saved us and we can stay longer.”
Ukraine suspended consular services abroad in April for all men aged 18 to 60 who are eligible for military service. Once they go back, they are barred from leaving.
Given that temporary residence status can only be extended for three years or until their passport expires, whichever comes first, the difficulty of renewing their passports could be a barrier for fighting-age Ukrainian men in Canada.
Mr. Perederenko’s passport will expire in 2025 and he does not know if he will be able to renew it. He said he doesn’t want to bring his family back to the war in Ukraine. His youngest child is a six-month-old Canadian who was born here.
“In this case, you are in a closed circle. You cannot extend your work permit, but when it’s finished, you have no place to escape. You don’t want to go to the war and die,” he said, adding that it could force many Ukrainians to stay as immigrants without authorized documents. “You don’t want to, but you have no choice.”
Andrii Shatskyi, a Ukrainian student whose work permit was set to expire in June, 2025, applied to extend it before the end-March deadline – but only got a one-month extension because his passport’s expiration date is July 1, 2025.
“I’m afraid because I don’t really know what’s gonna happen because there’s no certainty in this,” said Mr. Shatskyi, who lives in Hamilton with Richard Wybou, a Canadian who had been helping him before the war began. “You have to either get permanent residency by July or leave.”
Ms. Carbert said in an e-mail that if the applicant doesn’t have a valid passport, the Immigration Department may consider their situations on a case-by-case basis, but the onus is on the applicant to provide evidence to support such an application.
Pathfinders for Ukraine, a non-profit that advocates for those who fled, conducted a survey of 3,600 Ukrainians in Canada under the emergency travel program and found 90 per cent want to pursue permanent residency. They have incurred an average cost of $6,800 to come to Canada and 76 per cent of them are employed, the group’s survey found.
A pathway to citizenship would give “them that certainty. And for people who have gone through a war, certainty and safety are really important, especially as their kids are integrating into school, making friends,” said the non-profit’s executive director Randall Baran-Chong.