Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab has signed a new public policy that allows Ukrainian nationals in Canada under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) to keep working while the war continues. Effective 1 April 2026, eligible Ukrainians can apply from inside Canada to extend their existing open work permits for up to one year; the measure runs until 31 March 2027. To qualify, applicants must have arrived on or before 31 December 2024 and already hold a CUAET-based work permit. The policy waives key regulatory requirements, streamlining renewals under section 201(1) of the Immigration Regulations. It also covers certain family members of Ukrainian nationals. The extension is crucial for employers that hired talent through emergency channels in 2022-2025 and now face looming permit expiries. Without the policy, companies would need to transition workers onto employer-specific permits—an administrative and financial burden that also ties employees to a single job. Instead, open permits preserve labour-market flexibility, letting Ukrainians change roles or provinces as economic conditions shift. For mobility professionals, the immediate task is to identify staff whose permits expire between April and June and file online renewals promptly. While IRCC processing times for extensions currently average 60 days, applicants benefit from maintained status, meaning they can keep working if their previous permit lapses while the new application is in progress. The measure underscores Canada’s broader humanitarian commitment but also serves practical workforce needs: roughly 190,000 CUAET visa holders have arrived to date, many filling critical vacancies in healthcare, IT and logistics.
Source: Government of Canada – IRCC
