Local group raising funds as critical Ukraine immigration service ends

As conflict ravages, a critical service that helped Ukrainians fleeing the violence come to Canada is ending.

The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program will end on March 31.

It provided Ukrainians free and extended temporary status to live, work, and study in Canada. With the program’s end in sight, Ukrainians will have to now apply for work, travel, or study visas through the normal system. This is because Ukrainians do not have refugee status and, therefore, cannot benefit from the free services that designation allows.

Waterloo Region Grassroots Response to the Ukrainian Crisis (WRGR) was founded to support Ukrainians coming to Canada with things like language services and assistance with documentation.

Inna Biliaieva, WRGR Volunteer Coordinator, told 570 NewsRadio that CUAET ending will particularly impact Ukrainians with little or no English.

“(The federal government) extended the possibility to apply for work permits and visas until March 2026. So, people can still apply and extend their work permits for example, but they can not go to settlement services to ask for assistance.”

Biliaieva said that would leave them to either try to navigate the system alone or pay out-of-pocket for private immigration assistance.

“Doing it alone seems like the easiest way, but in situations when people don’t speak English very well and will probably misunderstand something, this is exactly the problem right now.”

WRGR has launched The Right to Stay campaign to provide urgent assistance to Ukrainian newcomers navigating the bureaucracy of the immigration system.

Its fundraising target is $30,000, and WRGR said in a press release that all donations will be matched dollar for dollar.

WRGR asks that anyone making a donation through their website include “The Right to Stay” in the comment section.