Canada announces new path to permanent residency for Ukrainians with family in Canada

Canada is launching a new pathway to permanent residency for Ukrainians who fled Russia’s invasion to stay in Canada with their families.

The program will allow Ukrainian nationals with temporary resident status to apply for permanent residency at no cost starting on Oct. 23, 2023.

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This is an effort to provide long-term support to Ukrainians and “families separated by this conflict,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a news release on Saturday.

To qualify, a person must be a temporary resident and have one or more family members in Canada with citizenship or permanent residence status.

Ukrainian-born immigration lawyer Ksenia Tchern said this new program is sparking excitement within the Ukrainian community.

“We have some family members who are also very excited and eager to hear about this news,” she told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday. 

Saturday’s announcement comes as the government officially closed applications for the temporary emergency visas offered to Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression.

Despite the new program, advocates are still questioning federal aid, as only 20 per cent of applicants from the original program have actually arrived in Canada and there is no word yet on exactly how many refugees the new pathway will help.

“There’s an incredible disconnect between what the elected officials show up [in] press conference and say they're going to do and what actually gets done,” Rahul Singh, executive director of humanitarian organization Global Media, told CTV News.  

The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET), which launched in March of last year, provided temporary refuge to more than 166,000 Ukrainians after receiving more than one million applications.

Tchern, who is based in Toronto, said many Ukrainians who have had their visas approved haven’t come to Canada yet because they are waiting for relatives to get their applications approved as well.

“We are noting that family members don't want to leave others behind,” she said. .

This visa allows Ukrainians to work, study, and access settlement services such as language training and employment services for three years. Now, Ukrainians holding a CUAET visa and are already in Canada have until March 31, 2024 to extend or change their temporary status in the country.

“We will probably see a greater influx of Ukrainians coming in, especially because now they have to come in before March 31, 2024,” said Tchern.

While some members of the community may be excited for the new program, Tchern said there are still many barriers Ukrainian refugees face in Canada, such as the rising cost of living, and finding affordable housing.

“[These are] the same barriers that us Canadians face as well, but a little bit more difficult for them because they are in a new society,... being met with a lot of new, different things and learning the language as well,” she said. 

The new program will only be open for a year until Oct. 22, 2024. The federal government says more information will be available closer to the launch of the program in October. 

With files from Kevin Gallagher.