Ukrainian emigres face uncertain future in Manitoba on anniversary of invasion
Expiring Ukrainian passports, reduction in Manitoba’s provincial nominee program slots among top concerns
Nearly 30,000 Ukrainians have settled in Manitoba since Russia's full-scale invasion of their country in February 2022.
Now, challenges with their documents and hurdles in the permanent residency process have many of the newcomers anxious about their future in Canada.
Leonid Isakov, 29, and his wife, Tetiana Isakova, 32, say they try to book an appointment online with the Consulate General of Ukraine in Toronto, but automated messages repeatedly tell them the bookings are full.
The couple's calls to the consulate also go unanswered.
They need an appointment to renew Leonid's passport, which expires next December. Without it, he can't extend his open work permit to live and continue working as a heavy-duty mechanic.
"I need live here, because if I no live here, I come back Ukraine, and I dead," Leonid told CBC News at his home in Carman, a community about 60 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.
The couple and their eight-year-old son, Mark, have called the town home for nearly two years.
"We want to stay, because in Ukraine … not safe now. Not safe for us, for my son," Tetiana said, adding they're nervous about their future.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Manitoba (UCCM) says many Ukrainian newcomers are dealing with a host of paperwork problems, including expiring passports — especially men of military age from 18 to 60 years old.
Newcomers who arrived in Manitoba under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program have until March 31 to apply for study visas or work permit extensions.
Ukrainian men can't get their passports renewed in Canada unless they're registered with the Ukrainian military through an app called Rezerv+, the UCCM's Ostap Skrypnyk said Thursday.
"Some people are having difficulty accessing [the app] … [and] some people are worried that if they do register, they'll get a draft notice so they're caught in a little bit of a situation that they can't get consular services from the Ukrainian government until they have that."
Leonid is afraid to renew his passport in Ukraine, because men of military age are prohibited from leaving the country.
"We [are] stuck in this situation," Tetiana said.
Last month, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that while he would not force Ukrainian newcomers to go back to a war zone, he did not agree to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress's call to automatically renew their emergency visas. Instead, he said, they must apply for student visas or work permits if they are interested in staying longer as temporary residents.
Skrypnyk says he's optimistic Ukrainian newcomers won't have to leave Canada if they don't want to.
WATCH | Ukrainian newcomers face hurdles in the permanent residency process:
"We met with Minister Miller, the immigration minister, a couple of weeks ago when he was in Winnipeg, and I think they're willing to look at solutions within the law or within the regulations to have some understanding of people [who] have these little timing hiccups."
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has told CBC News it might consider exemptions to the passport requirement under exceptional circumstances, but applicants must explain why.
Reduction in provincial nominee slots
Last year, Leonid and Tetiana filed an expression of interest with the Manitoba provincial nominee program (MPNP), which offers a pathway to permanent residency, but they say they have yet to get a response.
Yuliaa Venhryniuk, 26, is also waiting in the applicant pool.
The lawyer arrived in Winnipeg in 2023, and got a job at a laundry company before landing one in her field as a legal assistant.
Applicants have to have worked full-time for an employer in Manitoba for at least six consecutive months to be eligible for the nominee program.
The province periodically chooses from people who've expressed interest, who are then invited to apply to the program. The draws are not random but determined using a ranking scale, with points awarded for a range of factors.
Venhryniuk changed jobs before the six-month mark and says she missed her opportunity under the last Ukrainian newcomer draw last year, despite now having a high score.
Getting her legal education recognized in Canada through further studies would be more affordable and easier as a permanent resident, she said.
"It's worrying me, because … you want to make some plans for [the] future, right?" Venhryniuk said.
Many Ukrainian newcomers in Manitoba will find the nominee program even harder to get into due to a federal reduction in nominee slots, Skrypnyk says.
Manitoba is only getting 4,750 slots through the program in 2025, which is half the number it received last year.
Manitoba continues to negotiate with Ottawa about its allocations, a spokesperson for provincial Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino said in an emailed statement on Friday.
"It's adding to the anxiety, on top of which then they also have to worry about what's going on in Ukraine, right?" Skrypnyk said.
As for Leonid, he says he'll go to the Ukrainian consulate in Toronto without an appointment to resolve his passport woes if it comes to that.
Asked what he would do if that doesn't work, he replied solemnly: "I don't know."
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with files from Ian Froese, Michelle Gomez and The Canadian Press