Ugandans, Congolese and South Sudanese in Canada got visas suspended in wake of ebola travel restrictions

An untold number of Ugandans, Congolese and South Sudanese nationals who were already in Canada when the federal government brought in ebolavirus-related travel restrictions for residents of those three countries have had their visas suspended, CBC News has learned.

The move does not kick them out of Canada, but it effectively bars them from international travel because they would be unable to return without a visa.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says it could suspend more than 24,000 travel documents as it seeks to keep residents of the three African countries out for a 90-day period it announced Tuesday, alongside quarantine requirements for Canadians and permanent residents returning from any of them.

The bulk of those documents are linked to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. The IRCC said that as of May 19th, it estimated there are about 12,600 DRC residents with Canadian travel documents, and 11,500 Ugandans.

It said there were some 470 South Sudanese residents with valid immigration documents as of May 21.

What the IRCC cannot do, an official told CBC News in a background conversation, is tell who is and who is not currently in Canada.

"Our systems are not able to differentiate where clients are in the world," the official said. "So what the suspension was, was focused on people who, when they applied, said their residence was one of the three affected countries."

The official spoke on condition of confidentiality after CBC News sent a series of questions to the department.

They said more up-to-date entry and exit data is kept by the Canada Border Services Agency and airports, but is not currently shared actively with IRCC.

"We've been working with partners in Public Safety and the Canada Border Services Agency," the official said, "to be able to better integrate the systems, and overlay that additional part of days which shows who has entered, and who has left."

CBC News reviewed copies of the IRCC form letter that nationals of the three countries have started to receive.

It starts by notifying them that their travel document has been suspended, "is no longer valid" and cannot be used at this time.

"You can no longer use it to travel to Canada or to transit through a Canadian airport," the letter says.

Near the bottom of the letter, those who are currently in Canada are told the suspension of the document does not impact the amount of time they can stay here. "However, if you leave Canada, you will not be able to re-enter until the Order in Council is expired or revoked," the letter says.

Heather Neufeld, an immigration lawyer based in Ottawa, told CBC News some of her clients who are in Canada on permits were confused by the wording of the message.

She said she had to explain to them that their permits are not cancelled, only their travel documents suspended.

"There's going to be a cohort of people who are going to be thrown into a panic about these letters," Neufeld told CBC.

"It never occurred to them that they'd be in a situation where they could not leave Canada without being able to come back in," she said.

The form letter includes a link to the IRCC's webpage about the ebolavirus measures, which itself has a link to a web form clients can fill out if they need to make their case for being able to travel outside Canada and return.

The official told CBC News the department has so far only received web forms in the single digits and expects the workload to be manageable for IRCC, given the relatively low number of Ugandans, South Sudanese and Congolese people with Canadian travel documents.

On the page with the form, clients are instructed to write the words "TRANSIT2026" if they were travelling when the suspensions took effect, but otherwise are not given extra directions.

The web form's drop-down menu includes no specific option with the word ebolavirus or the names of the three countries.

These measures mark the first time IRCC is using mass visa-cancellation powers granted under Bill C-12, which passed at the end of March.

The official said the department is "satisfied with the outcome," but admitted it's "something that needs to be tweaked."

"We'll be looking at lessons learned and best practices if and when we need to use this again."