Immigration Minister Marc Miller has vowed Canada will not send any Ukrainians who arrived under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization For Emergency Travel (CUAET) home as long as the war with Russia is raging – even if their visas have expired.
“We’re not sending anyone back in the face of the aggression of a nuclear aggressor like Russia and as long as the war is on-going,” said Miller.
“This is something we will have to look at as this program starts to sunset. And we’re looking for a number of ways to make sure people are safe and welcome here in Canada, including the now close to 300,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine.”
Miller’s promise to Ukrainians that Canada would not send them back to their war-torn homeland even if their visitor visas expire was made during a housing strategy announcement on March 27 in response to a journalist’s question.
That promise comes in the wake of the immigration minister previously dismissing any extension of the CUAET as “not something that is actively being considered.”
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Miller has, though, previously not categorically ruled out the possibility of some kind of on-going help for Ukrainians temporarily in Canada.
“The operational flexibility needs to be there for what happens in Ukraine,” he has reportedly said.
Between March 17, 2022 and Feb. 27 this year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) received 1,189,320 applications under the CUAET temporary residence program.
But while 960,091 of those applications were approved during that period, only 248,726 Ukrainians, or 25.9 per cent of the total, had made the move to Canada by the end of February.
According to surveys, roughly 90 per cent of Ukrainians who came to Canada under the temporary measure launched in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 now want to stay here permanently.
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But CUAET does not allow them to do that, offering only the opportunity stay in Canada for up to three years as temporary residents and offering them free open work and study permits.
A Canadian non-profit organization representing Ukrainians, Pathfinders for Ukraine, wants Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to open the door to permanent residency for Ukrainians with a permanent pathway.
“We know that employers have been hesitant to hire, train, and promote Ukrainians, knowing their work permit is set to expire in a year,” Randall Baran-Chong, the organization’s executive director and founder, has reportedly said.
Ukrainian Groups Advocate For Permanent Residency Path For CUAET Arrivals
“These war-displaced Ukrainians are de-facto refugees but the program is a temporary measure that doesn’t afford them the benefits and protections of refugee status.”
Almost a quarter of a million Ukrainians are already here after having come under CUAET and a growing number of them are arriving as the March 31 travel deadline for the program looms.
“We’re seeing definitely more arrivals week over week, because people are trying to come, people are coming before the end of it,” Ihor Michalchyshyn, CEO and executive director of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, reportedly told the National Post.
Many Ukrainians have reportedly applied for CUAET as something of an insurance policy should they need it to flee the Ukraine.
Almost three-quarters of a million Ukrainians, exactly 711,365, are still eligible to come to Canada as temporary residents under CUAET before the end of March.
In February alone, Canada welcomed 27,495 Ukrainians through CUAET.
Once the temporary measure was in place, Ottawa also upped its immigration application processing capacity in Europe and sent mobile biometrics kits to Warsaw, Vienna and Bucharest to take the fingerprints and portrait photos of prospective Ukrainian refugees in a bid to ensure proper security precautions were taken with the surge in applications.
The government then increased its federal settlement programs to include language training, orientation, employment assistance and other supports for Ukrainians as they settled into their new communities.
In addition to settlement services, Ukrainians fleeing to Canada were also offered transitional financial assistance of $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per child.
“These funds will help Ukrainian nationals and their family members meet their basic needs, such as transportation and longer-term housing, as they arrive in communities across Canada and find a job,” noted IRCC on its website.
“Settlement services will remain available to Ukrainians and their family members after they arrive so that they can fully participate in Canadian communities while they are here. Ukrainians and their family members will also continue to benefit from the one-time transitional financial support, as well as from access to emergency accommodations for up to two weeks, if needed, after they arrive in Canada.”
Hotline To Help Ukrainians With Legal Services
This year, Ottawa upped its offering of help to Ukrainians by pumping $475,788 into a trilingual hotline to help them access the legal services they need for the coming three years.
The money was for Pro Bono Ontario’s Ukrainian Refugee Legal Relief Initiative to allow displaced Ukrainians access legal information and advice, including the toll-free hotline that are accessible nationally and abroad.
The hotline provides Ukrainians in Canada with access to Canadian lawyers so they can ask immigration-related questions on such things as sponsorship, refugee claims and work permits or be referred to provincial pro bono organizations or community groups across Canada.
“Our government is grateful to be able to count on organizations, such as Pro Bono Ontario, that improve access to justice, a fundamental Canadian value and an integral part of a fair and effective justice system,” said Justice Minister Arif Virani.
“This investment shows how our government continues to stand with Ukraine, and that we will continue to support Ukrainians forced to flee their homes because of Russia’s illegal invasion.”
With CUAET no longer taking applications from overseas, Ukrainians wishing to come to Canada from abroad can apply for a visa or a work or study permit through the IRCC’s existing temporary resident programs but are now subject to fees and standard requirements.