Canada often emphasizes its commitment to humanitarian principles, but recent events raise the question: is everything as smooth as IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) claims?
Ukrainian families applying for permanent residence (PR) through a special humanitarian stream face chaos, “lost” documents, and a complete lack of clarity.
One major issue is a strange technical error causing applications to “disappear” from IRCC’s system. This isn’t an isolated case—these stories are widely discussed in Telegram groups and covered in the media. Applicants report that their documents sometimes appear in the system, only to vanish as if they never existed. While IRCC acknowledges the error, they reassure applicants that “nothing is lost.” Understandably, trust among applicants is dwindling.
Ironically, other programs, such as humanitarian streams for Hong Kong or residents of the Americas, continue without such glitches. Ukrainian applications, however, seem to have been pushed to the back burner. Out of 23,000 applications submitted under the Ukrainian family reunification program, decisions have been made on just 367. Impressive “speed” of processing, isn’t it?
Who is behind this? It seems that someone may be deliberately “setting priorities.” Other explanations are hard to find. With IRCC’s recent announcements about plans to reduce overall immigration levels and limit the number of humanitarian applications, one can’t help but wonder who benefits from creating these obstacles.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian families remain in limbo. Passports and work permits are expiring, and the recent requirement for men aged 25–60 to register for military service to renew documents only adds to their anxiety. People don’t know if they’ll be able to stay in Canada or be forced to return to a war zone.
IRCC promises that no one will be sent back to the conflict zone, but words are one thing, and reality is another. As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” Ukrainian families can only hope that their futures won’t be lost in the maze of bureaucracy.
Oleksandra Melnykova, Immigration and Refugee Consultant in Canada.
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