CIMM – A.2. Q-731 Response - Question Template – March 23, 2026

Date: December 9, 2025
By: Dan Mazier (Riding Mountain)

Question

With regard to protected persons in Canada who made a refugee claim, since 2015 and broken down by year: what is the total number of claimants that (i) underwent, (ii) did not undergo, an immigration medical examination at the time they made their refugee claim?

Reply

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Reply by: the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Name of Signatory: Peter Fragiskatos

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Individuals submitting a claim for refugee protection (asylum) from within Canada receive instructions to complete an Immigration Medical Examination within 30 days of the date they submitted their claim. The onus is on claimants to complete their medical exams. Claimants who do not complete and pass their medical exam cannot get an open work permit. In some instances, the individual may have already completed an Immigration Medical Examination and their previous results may be used to support their application.

Between January 1, 2015 and October 31, 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada received 767 580 refugee claim applications. In total, 707 791 Immigration Medical Examinations for clients with refugee claim applications were assessed over this time period (Table 1). The number of Immigration Medical Examinations assessed in Table 1 includes those that were completed at the time of the refugee claim as well as previously completed Immigration Medical Examinations that were used to support refugee claim applications. To respond to question (ii), a client and application-level analysis would be needed, which would require more time. The difference between the number of applications and the number of Immigration Medical Examinations does not provide an accurate estimate of the volume of clients who did not undergo an immigration Medical Examination to support their refugee claim application. Some applications are still in progress where clients are yet to complete their Immigration Medical Examinations, and, in some instances, there may be more than one Immigration Medical Examination linked to a client or application.

Table 1: Number of refugee claim applications and assessed Immigration Medical Examinations, 2015‒2025^{Table note *}

Data are operational and subject to change.