The right immigration route for a medical doctor turns on one question: Have you worked as a doctor in Canada for at least 12 months within the past 3 years?
If yes, you may fit the dedicated Express Entry category for physicians with Canadian work experience. If no, you may still have options through regular Express Entry, a provincial nomination or an employer-led regional program.
Medical licensing runs beside the immigration process, not inside it. Permanent residence can give you the right to live and work in Canada, but it does not by itself authorize you to practise medicine.
Find your starting route
| Your situation | Route to investigate first | The key requirement |
|---|---|---|
| At least 12 months of recent Canadian work as a physician | Physicians with Canadian work experience category | Express Entry program eligibility plus qualifying Canadian experience |
| A Canadian job, job offer or provincial letter of support | Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) | Nomination under the province or territory's current rules |
| No Canadian doctor experience and no job offer | Regular Express Entry | Eligibility for the Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker Program or Federal Skilled Trades Program |
| Job offer from a designated Atlantic employer | Atlantic Immigration Program | Employer designation and the program's other requirements |
| Job offer from a designated rural employer | Rural Community Immigration Pilot | Qualifying experience or eligible local graduation plus a designated-employer offer |
| French ability and a qualifying community job offer outside Quebec | Francophone Community Immigration Pilot | French, qualifying experience or eligible graduation, and a designated-employer offer |
This table is a starting map, not an approval test. Each program has additional requirements, and provinces can change their nomination criteria.
Route 1: The Express Entry category for physicians
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) added a dedicated category for medical doctors with Canadian work experience in 2026.
To be considered in a category-based round, you must first qualify for at least one program managed through Express Entry. You must also have accumulated at least 12 months of full-time Canadian work experience, or an equal amount of part-time experience, within the past 3 years in one eligible physician occupation. The experience does not need to be continuous, but it must be in a single eligible occupation.
| Occupation | NOC 2021 code |
|---|---|
| Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine | 31100 |
| Specialists in surgery | 31101 |
| General practitioners and family physicians | 31102 |
Meeting these conditions does not guarantee an invitation. IRCC ranks eligible candidates by their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score when it holds a physicians-category round.
What the 2026 physician draws show
| Draw date | Invitations | CRS cutoff |
|---|---|---|
| February 19, 2026 | 391 | 169 |
| June 24, 2026 | 271 | 223 |
Those cutoffs were unusually low because the category is narrow. They do not mean that every doctor can enter Express Entry with CRS 169 or 223. A candidate still needs Express Entry program eligibility, qualifying Canadian physician experience and a CRS score high enough for the specific round.
Doctors in NOC 31100, 31101 and 31102 also appear in the broader Healthcare and Social Services occupations category. That broader category accepts qualifying experience gained in Canada or abroad, but it has its own draw cutoffs and still requires Express Entry eligibility. Read the distinction in our healthcare workers immigration guide.
Route 2: Provincial nomination and the 5,000-space allocation
IRCC says provinces and territories have up to 5,000 federal immigration spaces reserved to nominate medical doctors who have a job, job offer or letter of support to live and work in Canada permanently.
The number needs context:
- It is a federal allocation across participating provinces and territories, not 5,000 spaces for each province.
- It does not remove provincial eligibility rules or guarantee a nomination.
- A doctor must first identify a province or territory whose current program fits the job or support arrangement.
- Quebec operates its own immigration programs, and Nunavut does not have a Provincial Nominee Program.
Once an eligible doctor receives a provincial or territorial nomination, IRCC says the doctor can become eligible for expedited work-permit processing so they can work while permanent residence is processed.
The 14-day measure is for the work permit after nomination. It is not a promise that the province will nominate you in 14 days or that IRCC will decide permanent residence in 14 days.
If you already have a health authority, clinic or provincial recruiter supporting you, ask whether they can provide the job offer or letter of support required by the relevant nomination stream. Then confirm the stream directly on the province or territory's immigration website before relying on it.