Ukrainians say new immigration policy disrupts path to permanent residency

Recent changes to Saskatchewan's immigration program are affecting Ukrainians living in Canada who were displaced by Russia's invasion. Keenan Sorokan reports.

Ukrainians living in Saskatchewan are calling on the provincial government to reverse some recent changes to its immigration program.

At the start of the year, the province changed conditions of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program following reduced allocations from the federal government.

As part of the changes, the province implemented sector caps to ensure the limited number of spots are distributed strategically.

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The capped sectors for the year are trucking, accommodations, retail trade, and food services — four areas the province said “have historically filled the majority of SINP nominations.”

Now, immigrants working in those sectors seeking permanent residency may only apply to the program once there are six months or less remaining on their existing permit.

“It makes me feel upset,” Bohdan Dumenko said. “You will not gamble on that, because six months is a pretty (small) amount.”

Dumenko works as a delivery driver and finds himself stuck between federal and provincial policies that leave little flexibility for his situation.

Dumenko is in Canada on a Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) permit. The CUAET permit is a temporary program created in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

One major difference between CUAET and applying for permanent residency is the timeframes.

Ukrainians are able to extend the open work permit for up to three years at a time. Dumenko and other Ukrainians like him don’t want to risk deportation and their legal status in Canada to apply for a limited number of nominations, so he recently renewed his CUAET, which makes him ineligible to apply for permanent residency for two and a half more years.

After making a home in Saskatoon, he fears he could be sent back to Ukraine as he works to become compliant with immigration policies.

“I’m not planning to go anywhere else, and if I am forced to, it’s going to be a huge pressure, huge (difficulty) for me,” he said.

For Vladislav Chonka, the emotional burden of these changes is becoming more than he can handle. He left his family in Vynohradiv in western Ukraine when his daughter was three months old.

His now five-year-old daughter only knows her dad through occasional calls, which are becoming more difficult given Ukraine’s widespread power outages because of Russian attacks.

Without permanent residency, Chonka is unable to freely move between both countries and bring his wife and child to Saskatoon.

“Almost four years is too hard for me, because I try [submitting a] new document like three times and they cancel for me,” Chonka said.

“It’s very hard for me to be really talking about this.”

Chonka also recently renewed his status in Canada, meaning he may not be able to see his daughter again until she is nearly seven years old unless changes are made to the nomination program.

“I think that’s part of the unfairness is by not consulting with people. People moved to Saskatchewan and got jobs and bought houses and so on with the notion that they would have a pathway to permanent residency here,” Saskatchewan NDP MLA Keith Jorgenson said.

“So it seems quite unfair to sort of change that when somebody is partway through that process, and has already sort of put down roots and now they’re not sure when and if they’ll be able to get permanent residency.”

The province said it understands the anxiety and challenges that many Ukrainian newcomers are experiencing as their work permit expiration dates near and they work toward permanent residency.

To review as many applications as possible, the province has multiple intake periods throughout the year to create fair opportunities for candidates whose work permits expire at different times.

“The changes made to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) in 2026 do not favour one group of newcomers over another. While immigration remains a shared federal-provincial responsibility, the Government of Saskatchewan is committed to maximizing provincial flexibility to support Ukrainian newcomers within our jurisdiction,” a statement from the province said.

With many Ukrainians arrived in Canada shortly after the Russian invasion, the three-year CUAET permit could potentially be expiring for the more than 8,000 Ukrainians who landed in Saskatchewan.

Jorgenson said nearly all of them would have renewed it in recent months, not knowing changes at the provincial level would impact them like this.

“The word that I’ve heard used several times is the word betrayal. People feel that they’ve been kind of betrayed,” Jorgenson said.

Dumenko’s brother Mykhailo, a plumber in Saskatoon, was hoping he would be facing a different circumstance after roughly four years in Canada.

“I hope something changes for Ukrainian people,” he said.