Ukrainian approved to come to Canada, but her son, six, is not
Since packing up a small suitcase and leaving her home in Ukraine with her six-year-old son, Iryna Mishyna has found solace in helping other families in similar situations find some stability.
Her own situation, however, is still less than certain.
Mishyna, 35, was granted a temporary visa to work in Canada while she seeks refuge from the war, but her son, Nikita, is one of nearly 279,000 Ukrainians whose applications are still waiting for a response.
“I want to take a Canadian visa for my son because for him, it’s a very good opportunity, a very good chance,” Mishyna said in Warsaw, where she has lived since leaving Ukraine. She applied in July and her visa came through in September, but after waiting six months she has heard no word from the Canadian government about her son.
“I asked, but they just told me ‘Wait,’ ” she said.
Every day she co-ordinates volunteers in an airy room on the second floor of Warsaw’s central train station, where a dozen small wooden benches are laid with thin foam mats, blankets, and star-shaped pillows so Ukrainian children can sleep after fleeing their home country.
Between 20 and 60 people use the makeshift shelter some nights, Mishyna said while sitting on one of the improvised beds. Inflatable mattresses are flipped up against the wall, awaiting families arriving from Ukraine who need a place to rest while they figure out what to do next. Mishyna is trying to do the same. “I don’t know what I should do now,” she said.
Mishyna isn’t the only mother in this situation, said Randall Baran-Chong, the founder of Pathfinders for Ukraine, a Canadian organization that has helped people navigate the immigration system since the war began.
“We’ve heard of several kinds of issues with, for whatever reason, [the Immigration Department] issuing the mother the visa, but not the children,” said Baran-Chong from his home in Toronto. Some people have been waiting since as far back as last March or April, he said.
When Russian tanks began their assault on Ukraine nearly one year ago, Ukrainians fled toward the Polish border in the millions, causing a massive European refugee crisis as neighbouring countries struggled to house the tremendous number of women and children.
Canada launched a first-of-itskind program to allow Ukrainians to bypass the usual refugee system, and instead come to Canada quickly with a temporary work and study permit to wait out the war.
Of the 839,567 applications received under the emergency program since it opened in
March, about 64 per cent had been approved as of Feb. 7.
Applying for the visas wasn’t an easy process, Mishyna said. It meant leaving her son in Poland while she returned to Ukraine — and the war — to update their passports and get all their documents in order. Her temporary visa is valid for only three years, and the clock is ticking down on Mishyna’s paperwork while she waits to hear about what will happen to her son’s application.
More complex applications might take longer to process, and the time it takes to evaluate an application varies based on a “number of factors,” said federal Immigration Department spokeswoman Julie Lafortune.
The government aims to deal with temporary work permits within 60 days, but 25 per cent of cases in the queue have taken longer and are part of a backlog as of Dec. 31, the department’s statistics show.
People who apply under the emergency program are offered “accelerated, prioritized processing,” she said, and it is the fastest way for Ukrainians and their families to get to Canada.
Mishyna said she feels lucky compared with some people who are desperate to get to Canada. She has a home and a job in Warsaw, but she knows others who haven’t been so lucky.
Digital advertisements on the sidewalks and underground tunnels around Warsaw Central Station flash the Ukrainian coat of arms with messages of support for the embattled country, but other signs of support
for refugees in Poland have begun to fade. The public park across from the station that was filled with tents and kiosks offering refugees food, help and advice at the beginning of the war is now empty, and many refugee centres have closed.