Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says it is simplifying the path to permanent residence for internationally trained medical doctors, part of an effort to shore up a health care system that already leans heavily on immigrants.
According to IRCC, medical doctors now have five ways to get permanent residence through Express Entry and regional, provincial and territorial programs. Two are new: a dedicated Express Entry category for doctors with at least one year of full-time Canadian work experience as a physician in the last three years, and 5,000 federal immigration spaces reserved through the Provincial Nominee Program specifically to nominate doctors who have a job offer or a letter of support.
Doctors nominated by a province or territory will also get their work permit processed within 14 days, letting them start working while their permanent residence application is still in progress. Applicants can include family members in their application.
To practise as a doctor in Canada, applicants still need to have their foreign credentials assessed and get licensed through a provincial or territorial regulatory authority before these immigration pathways apply.
IRCC notes that 31% of family physicians in Canada were internationally trained as of 2024, and that more than 11,000 health care workers arrived in Canada that year through economic immigration programs. Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census found that one in four health care workers in Canada is an immigrant.
Other internationally trained health care workers who are not doctors remain eligible under Express Entry and Canada’s other existing immigration programs, though they may also need a foreign credential assessment first.
Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, “Live and work as a medical doctor in Canada.”
