Ottawa man’s wife and two children stranded in Russia while awaiting decision on visa application

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An international school teacher who left Russia on the advice of Global Affairs Canada after the invasion of Ukraine was forced to return to Ottawa without his wife and two children.

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Mathieu Taillefer, 39, said goodbye to his Russian wife, Gulmira, and their Canadian children, two-year-old Chanel and nine-month-old Tristan, on August 2.

The children have Canadian passports, but his wife has been unable to obtain permanent residence or a tourist visa.

“I feel like my country has abandoned me,” Taillefer said in an interview Friday. “I feel like I should never have listened to the Canadian government and should have stayed in Russia.”

Taillefer’s wife first applied to become a permanent resident of Canada in May 2021, when the family initially considered moving to Ottawa. She was told that the processing time would be approximately one year.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the application review process, and Taillefer was recently told not to wait for a decision until May 2023.

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(On its website, Global Affairs Canada says that family sponsorship applications for spouses living outside of Canada take about 24 months to process.)

Shortly after war broke out in Ukraine on February 24, Taillefer decided to follow the advice of Global Affairs Canada and left Russia.

The department warned Canadians living in Russia that security conditions were unpredictable “and could deteriorate without warning.” Federal officials recommended against traveling to Russia and advised those still in Russia to “leave now while commercial means are still available.”

Taillefer, who had been teaching at an international school in Moscow for six years, quit his job and took his family to nearby Kazakhstan to apply for a Canadian tourist visa for his wife.

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The family also needed to obtain Canadian government-recognized COVID-19 vaccines since the Russian Sputnik V vaccine was not approved for travel to Canada.

Taillefer hired an attorney who applied for his wife’s visitor visa on May 17.

The family was initially told the process would take 21 days. More than 85 days have passed and Taillefer is still waiting for a response.

On its website, updated weekly, Global Affairs Canada says it takes approximately 71 days to process visitor visa applications from Russia.

Taillefer believes his wife’s application may be complicated by the fact that she was denied a visitor’s visa in 2019, before they were married. “There is a risk that they will say ‘no’ again even though we are now married with two children,” she said, adding: “I am hopeful.”

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Taillefer and his family spent two months in Kazakhstan and another month in Turkey while trying to obtain the necessary travel documents.

Running out of money, Taillefer decided to return to Canada to find work, while his Canadian wife and children returned to Russia to wait.

He plans to work as a substitute teacher in Ottawa while struggling to reunite his family.

“I would do anything to see my wife and children,” Taillefer said. “I am forced to part with them. It’s very frustrating”.

Taillefer grew up in Orleans and spent five years in China teaching English as a Second Language before returning to Ottawa to earn his teaching degree. He moved to Calgary for a year and then took a job at a Russian international school in 2016.

Global Affairs Canada did not respond to a request for comment Friday.