New immigration streams not yet helping Ukrainians flee to Canada

Canada’s new immigration streams for Ukrainians can’t come soon enough for families eager to reunite with family members.

Polina Kurchenko is hoping to bring her mom and sister, who fled Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, but remain in the war-town country, to B.C.

Kurchenko lives in Metro Vancouver and says she is terrified for her family’s safety.

“Every morning when I [wake] up my first thought is ‘is everybody okay, is everybody alive?’ I don’t need a lot…just ‘yes, I’m alive,'” she said.

She adds the last few weeks have been hard and that she feels survivor’s guilt being here while her family goes through Russia’s attacks.

“I’m trying to fight with all [these] different emotions,” she said.

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On March 3, the Canadian government announced the creation of two new programs which Ukrainians can apply for: the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel and, for those who have family in Canada, a special family reunification sponsorship pathway for permanent residence.

However, neither program is up and running yet.

“We aim to have the extended pathway open for applications in 2 weeks, and, in the interim, we continue to encourage Ukrainians to apply through all programs, and their applications will be prioritized. This is the fastest, safest and most efficient way for Ukrainians to come to Canada by eliminating many of the normal visa requirements,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson Béatrice Fénelon wrote in an email to CityNews.

Unable to apply for the new programs, Kurchenko says her mom and sister will be applying for a visitor visa, which she hopes doesn’t take too long.

She’s also helping a family friend apply.

“I’m not sure what the program will be, and will it be applicable for my family, for my own story, and that’s why I don’t want to wait that long,” she said.

“Every day counts. Every day, they go without food, without the money, and I just … want them come to me as quickly as possible.”

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Costa Mashkov, who moved to Canada from Ukraine six years ago, is hoping to bring his mom, sister, and niece to B.C. They are all currently in Poland, after fleeing Ukraine.

While two of them have been approved for visitor visas, he’s still waiting for his mom’s. “It’s probably still … likely longer for her to get visa,” he said, as his mother is applying for a visa for the first time.

In the meantime, he’s getting ready to host them in his Surrey home for what could be months or years.

“We bring them to my townhouse which is good for two, but now we will have five people. They left basically everything. I need to buy them clothes, I need to buy them everything that they need,” he said, adding he hopes there will be some sort of government support.

“We can provide accommodation for our families, buy them everything they need, and provide them food. But we probably need help with health care, with English courses, all this stuff.”

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Mashkov says his family had not intended to move to Canada, but the violence in Ukraine has made it too unsafe to stay.

“My mom don’t know English, my sister has low level of English as well, so, it’s totally uncertain time for them because they can’t see their future anymore. They don’t understand what they can do in Canada or how long they’re coming,” he added.

“I have a lot of worries about my future as well, even from a financial point of view it’s really challenging. I paid right now to where they are staying in Poland, ” he said.

He feels Canada could be doing more to bring Ukrainians to Canada but adds he could feel differently in a few weeks, when details about the two new immigration streams become more clear.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says since Jan. 1 over 7,000 Ukrainian nationals have arrived in Canada, 1,000 in the last week.