No man of working age is allowed to leave Ukraine. They've all been drafted. Hence, only the women with their children are allowed to leave. They all want to go back, even while there is random bombing.
One relative is a doctor and she went to England with the 2 children, who were going to school. No school in Ukraine, the Russians bomb them. England is a paradise for them because there are no visas, just come in and go to school.
Over to Canada. Before, Canada hated Ukrainians. They were just Russians. There is a ridiculous and impossible visa system. We couldn't get anybody to come over for a visit. In came the troubles, and the PM promised easy entry for a visit.
Ha. We've had months of phone calls to try to get the mother to visit with her 4 year old son. Absolute horror. Everything is Catch-22 times10, catch-220. Still the horrible visa situation, no change. You can't start the process until you have a passport. The passport office is bombed. Some official is doing them out of their basement, but you have to find him.
You can't book any flight until all the paperwork is done. So, no cheap flights. All the stuff has to go to Poland, but you can't get there. So phone around and find a bus driver who will take the papers and mail them to the embassy.
Embassy does a little, but then says it will take 8 weeks for a visa from the visa company. Phone the local MP to see if anything can be done, and they say to pray. All of a sudden the visas are done in 2 days! Book a fight. The good flight is $4,000 with a few days notice, funeral prices. Fly all through Europe to get a reasonable price. They said to just come to the embassy and pick the stuff up, no prob. Friend in Poland has to line up for 8 hours!
Finally, they make it to fly into Toronto. Yeah, the worst airport in the world is at its best. Takes 2 hours after landing to get out. All is now wonderful.
All the husbands now say they are lonely and depressed, and are trying to get the wives back to Kiev, bomb city. It's difficult to say 'drop dead', since the men are 'old European', and everybody goes back after a little while. Blah.
ps. to put things in perspective, try to get a passport in Canada, or your green card in the states. They are all the 40's like the Russians. Ukraine might be 50's. :)
pps. insult upon injury is that they must pay $500 for a visa medical examination, and no health insurance. I suppose we can call the our country Texarcanada. :(
more: I think the big difference between the left and right in Canada, is that when harper said he would cut all meat inspectors, he really did. That would take of itself when everybpdy died of food poisoning. However, the trudies spin a great story that is a lie, and the press hushes it all up. There is no restoring force.
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