Three children from Ukraine who were adopted by an Edmonton woman are returning home after being stranded in Mexico for months.
“Everyone is happy to hear the good news,” said Olga Ostapiev, who is a Canadian citizen and the legal guardian of three children. ukraine Named Anastasia, Yulia and Maxim.
Children have a special type of visa called CUAT (Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel), which grants them one-time entry into Canada. It is not considered a refugee program.
Ostapiev said she wanted to help him forget about the war and decided to take him on a holiday she had booked a year before Russia invaded Ukraine.
She says because her English is not good, she asked the immigration officials if the children could travel with those documents and was told yes.
However, when it came time to go back to the airport in Mexico and return home to Edmonton, she learned that the children could not go back to Canada.
The children have been in Mexico for two months now, making hotel stays on a weekly basis and are unable to return to Edmonton.
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Ostapyev accepts responsibility and admits his mistake of not understanding the limits of the visa.
“I just ask, please help me fix this,” she said Thursday, adding that her misogyny has caused the children to suffer. “I took responsibility for those children. They trust me. They love being here.”
Anastasia, Yulia and Maxim, the three adopted children of Olga Ostapiev, are pictured with their sister.
Supply: Olga Ostapiev
For two months, Ostayev has been working to resolve the visa issue.
At one point, sending the kids back to Ukraine seemed like it might be the only option — a heartbreaking choice as they started school in Edmonton, made new friends, and got involved in activities like dance and taekwondo .
The kids are looking forward to once again attending summer events when they first arrived in Edmonton, like the Heritage Festival.
“The worst-case scenario is to send them back home,” he said, explaining that they would be housebound in an area with no electricity or private schools. “He lost contact with his friends and schoolmates in Ukraine. And his first question was, now how can we go back?”
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On Thursday, Ostapiev told Global News that the children had been given visas and passports to return to Canada.
Ostapiev said she was ready to jump on a plane to Puerto Vallarta immediately, but was advised by government workers she is communicating with to wait until the paperwork is complete.
She is now working to get the documents in the hands of the children and thinks it could take a week to get it right.
Olga Ostapiev has three adopted children, Anastasia, Yulia and Maxim.
Supply: Olga Ostapiev
Ostayev said her family lives a quiet, simple life and that talking to the media about the mix-up has been stressful — but after two months of trying to tackle the issue on her own and getting nowhere, she The results came out in public.
“I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly,” she said, adding that the children were receiving the documents two days after she spoke. “I thought, yeah, maybe faster — maybe a week — but today, really, it’s like magic.”
She is very grateful to all the people who helped bring the children home.
“Thanks for all. Lots of people involved in this and helped me to resolve my mistake.
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