Stranded in a foreign country for two months, Ekaterina Usmanova admits she “cried any and all tears she could shed. “
In August, the Canadian permanent resident returned to Russia for the first time in nearly 3 years to make a stopover at her family’s home. He had separated them.
On her vacation back to Toronto, the 26-year-old made a stopover in Istanbul, Turkey. This is where your vacation took a big detour when your wallet and Canadian permanent resident (PR) card were stolen.
When the panic started to go in, he remembers thinking, “I lost my whole life, I lost everything I worked for.
She says blind spots with security cameras at the airport meant officials couldn’t see the culprit for the brazen theft.
Alone at an exit check she had never visited before, Usmanova filed a police report and then went to the Canadian consulate in Istanbul to update her PR card. permanent resident, not a full citizen.
Your next step is to register documents with the Canadian embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara. That was two months ago.
Usmanova contacted Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on several occasions. Exasperated, she told CTV National News, “It was hard to succeed in someone human, to get a human mate. “
Almost defeated, she admits: “I exhausted all my feelings on this really stressful journey.
Ekaterina Usmanova. (Courtesy of Ekaterina Usmanova)
Eight years ago, Usmanova moved alone to Vancouver as a teenager to attend college. Three years ago, she moved to Toronto to continue building her life and begin her professional career as a marketing manager and professional photographer.
She admits, “I don’t have a house outside of Canada, because most of my adult life is where I’ve lived.
Travelling on Canadian documents as a permanent resident, she believed that her emergency as a young woman stranded in a foreign country would speed up the procedure of Canadian authorities. That was not his experience.
“I think it would take me about two, maximum 4 weeks to get my affairs in order and come back. I had no idea it would have happened that way. “
He added that the government’s lack of action “definitely adds a big sour drop to my glass of tears right now. “
Usmanova said she had to move 15 times in a 58-day period to Turkey. She was forced to leave the country and return to Russia, where she now hopes to know when she can return to Canada.
Last week, he won a message from his employer in Toronto.
“Unfortunately, my company had to terminate my position after two months of uncertainty,” he says.
Usmanova doesn’t know how she will cover the rent for her condo in Toronto, where she financially supports her younger sister who is in college and lives with her.
Showing a brave face, he says, “I don’t need to think negatively. I’m a wonderful fighter. I don’t need to think that we can lose our apartment. “
Sitting in their shared Toronto condo, her younger sister, Sofia Usmanova, reads the sticky notes on the refrigerator the two wrote and left to each other.
One of Sofia’s favorite notes reads, “Thank you for your unconditional love. “
The 20-year-old says she has called Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada several times a day for weeks, but gets the same frustrating automated message: “We’re getting a high volume of calls, call back later. “
Sofia Usmanova and Ekaterina Usmanova. (Courtesy of Ekaterina Usmanova)
When asked if she believed the Canadian government was handling her sister’s scenario with the urgency she believed necessary, she said emphatically, “No, you don’t feel like you’re appreciated or that this matter is vital to the Canadian government. “
Reflecting on her pleasure in seeking help from a Canadian immigration officer, the young Usmanova says that “it’s not just about her, it’s about the immigration formula, the total formula that works properly. “
Canada plans to welcome about 1. 5 million new permanent citizens over the next three years, in part to fill the shortage of critical tasks in the sectors. However, an immigration lawyer believes that the Canadian formula is chaotic and the flaws should be corrected immediately.
“The prestige quo is acceptable, you already have massive delays, you have massive backlogs and yet you need to ramp up immigration simultaneously,” attorney Matthew Jeffery told CTV National News.
“The government wants to devote more resources to the immigration branch to make sure they are there to process the programs in a timely manner. “
CTV National News reached out to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada about Usmanova’s case several times this week. However, they were unable to provide an update before our deadline.
A day after speaking to CTV National News, Usmanova received an email from the Immigration Minister’s office saying, “Be confident that any and all efforts are being made to process the won programs in the most effective and efficient manner. However, due to COVID-19, all existing and new programs will continue to be processed, but will possibly revel in delays.
“I don’t think (email) can be remotely satisfying,” Usmanova says.
She to move from home and back to the life she worked so hard to create in Canada.
She shares this message with everyone who reads her story, adding the Canadian passage: “I am looking to get my life back in Canada, return to my sister’s space to take care of her, return to life I have been 8 years in construction and my house in Toronto. Please step home.
Usmanova was left in immigration limbo, unable to return to Canada for 71 days or more.