On December 8, 2025, Lena Metlege Diab, the Minister of Immigration, and Maggie Chi announced three new immigration policies to facilitate the process of international doctors coming to stay in Canada.
In such measures, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will present:
A new Express Entry category;
5,000 specially allocated permanent residence admissions to provinces; and
Accelerated work permit clearance of nominated practice-ready physicians.
New Express Entry category
In order to qualify under the new Express Entry category of Physicians with Canadian work experience, one must have 12 months of full-time continuous work experience (or the equivalent of part-time continuous work experience) in Canada, in the past three years. This job experience should be in one qualified job.
The jobs covered in this new category (and associated National Occupation Classification (NOC) codes) are as listed below:
Family physicians and general practitioners (31102);
Specialists in surgery (31101); and
Clinical and laboratory medical specialists (31100).
The first invitations to apply on the basis of this new category will start in early 2026.
This category is now working together with each of the other existing Express Entry categories yet IRCC usually changes its program priorities under the system in the new year.
The present Express Entry program in IRCC that addresses physicians and various other healthcare professions like nurses, dentists and even optometrists among others is already in place. The current healthcare and social services category is yet to be clearly understood on how they will operate following the introduction of the new category today.
It is worth noting that the category of healthcare occupations in place today does not require an in-Canada work experience, but requires the candidate to have six months of work experience in Canada or outside the country.
Special admissions allocation
The Government of Canada will also provide provinces and territories with 5,000 federal admission spaces to nominate licensed doctors with job opportunities.
These positions go alongside the existing annual quota of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), i.e. the provincial immigration departments will have the ability to significantly boost their intake of foreign doctors to nominate them to permanent residence.
The admissions spaces are described in the Immigration Levels Plan of Canada-and are proportional to the number of individuals who are going to arrive in Canada as new permanent residents each year. These admissions encompass the entire immigration programs in Canada (including Express Entry and the PNPs) which are subdivided as per the program categories.
The government has failed to clarify what the new reservation of 5000 admissions among physicians will be claimed.
Expedited work permit processing
The nominated doctors in a province will have an advantage of fast processing of work permits within only 14 days so they can still work as their permanent residence applications are being processed.
It is an extreme condensing of the work permit application processing in Canada that can otherwise take several months to be processed and finalized, prior to a new work authorization being issued.
IRCC announces a new Express Entry pathway for doctors.
On December 8, 2025, Lena Metlege Diab, the Minister of Immigration, and Maggie Chi announced three new immigration policies to facilitate the process of international doctors coming to stay in Canada.
In such measures, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will present:
New Express Entry category
In order to qualify under the new Express Entry category of Physicians with Canadian work experience, one must have 12 months of full-time continuous work experience (or the equivalent of part-time continuous work experience) in Canada, in the past three years. This job experience should be in one qualified job.
The jobs covered in this new category (and associated National Occupation Classification (NOC) codes) are as listed below:
This category is now working together with each of the other existing Express Entry categories yet IRCC usually changes its program priorities under the system in the new year.
The present Express Entry program in IRCC that addresses physicians and various other healthcare professions like nurses, dentists and even optometrists among others is already in place. The current healthcare and social services category is yet to be clearly understood on how they will operate following the introduction of the new category today.
It is worth noting that the category of healthcare occupations in place today does not require an in-Canada work experience, but requires the candidate to have six months of work experience in Canada or outside the country.
Special admissions allocation
The Government of Canada will also provide provinces and territories with 5,000 federal admission spaces to nominate licensed doctors with job opportunities.
These positions go alongside the existing annual quota of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), i.e. the provincial immigration departments will have the ability to significantly boost their intake of foreign doctors to nominate them to permanent residence.
The admissions spaces are described in the Immigration Levels Plan of Canada-and are proportional to the number of individuals who are going to arrive in Canada as new permanent residents each year. These admissions encompass the entire immigration programs in Canada (including Express Entry and the PNPs) which are subdivided as per the program categories.
The government has failed to clarify what the new reservation of 5000 admissions among physicians will be claimed.
Expedited work permit processing
The nominated doctors in a province will have an advantage of fast processing of work permits within only 14 days so they can still work as their permanent residence applications are being processed.
It is an extreme condensing of the work permit application processing in Canada that can otherwise take several months to be processed and finalized, prior to a new work authorization being issued.
Author: Shubham
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