Canada to open new fast track to permanent residency for 5,000 foreign doctors
Policy move opens door to international doctors already working in Canada on temporary basis
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/diab-foreign-doctors-permanent-residency-9.7006937
Just FYI, it's for doctors either already living in Canada or have had Canadian work experience:
But it's definitely a good path because you would just need 1 year of working in Canada to get PR.
Since healthcare in Canada is Provincial, its the Provinces that do the actual headhunting of foreign doctors. I suspect this program is for the Feds to give all of the Provincial programs a boost. In effect, saying if you follow the hoops to jump through and work in Canada, the Feds will reward you with citizenship for that effort.
There’s a bit of a nuance. The 5,000 will be a new stream of federal Express Entry permanent resident immigration visas.
The provinces and territories already have the ability to set their own priorities for “In Demand” occupations for permanent residency under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).
However, with the shortage of physicians and other health care professionals and researchers, most provinces and territories have been setting aside a large portion of their quotas of permanent resident visas under the PNP for health care occupations.
As a result, provinces and territories with additional economic priorities and occupational gaps were finding that they couldn’t address those and get the physicians they need at the same time.
So, by creating a new federal Express Entry stream and allowing provinces to nominate more physicians, they take some pressure off the PNP programs while addressing a nationwide priority to address the physician shortage.
That's pretty much what I assumed. The Provinces create the job position and fill it (using existing Provincial quotas) , the Feds grant citizenship to those filling the positions. (freeing up those quotas). It's just nice to see the Provinces and Feds working together for the benefit of all.
They don’t get citizenship, just Permanent Residency. Ottawa is basically creating a separate stream for PR to free-up spaces for the Provinces outside Quebec.
Sure, but for a practicing doctor with PR, citizenship is a mere formality.
Still 3-4 years of wait. Granted, better than a temporary authorization to stay but still quite a road ahead. Plus, ironically, Quebec doesn’t seem to be doing much even though here the situation is deteriorating quickly.
That's not really correct, they're also opening more permanent residency slots specifically for provinces to nominate foreign physicians with job offers.
Fiiiiiiiinallyyyyyyyy
The new program has two parts:
1) opens a new path to permanent residency for physicians currently working in Canada;
2) dedicates permanent residency slots for provinces to nominate foreign physicians with job offers.
It makes it much easier to immigrate to Canada as a physician, but only if you have a job offer. It's not clear to me whether that job offer would need an LMIA exemption.
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2025/12/targeted-immigration-measures-to-boost-canadas-supply-of-doctors.html
Ya’ll need accountants? 😭😭😭
Nope
I read doctors as donors. That was a rollercoaster of emotions.
MD, PhD?
MD
Any room for a software developer in the health care industry?
From America to Canada, lmao.
Who wants to go when you make $150k CAD a year and $500k in the U.S.? Exempt doctors from tax, and now you have an interesting proposition.
Wait until they find out how much they’ll be making for the privilege and how terrible the health care system is.
I’m a psychiatrist planning on moving there. Lived in Canada for some time too and worked in their healthcare system. One of my colleagues just accepted a job there. The pay gap is not that big all things considered unless you’re in a surgical specialty. But sure continue to delude yourself with this myth 👍
Thanks for choosing Canada.