Live and work as a medical doctor in Canada
We’re making the path to permanent residence simpler for international medical doctors to support a stable health care system for Canadians.
Choose Canada for your medical career
You can apply for permanent residence through Express Entry, and regional, provincial and territorial programs
New
Express Entry category for medical doctors who have at least 1 year of full-time Canadian work experience as a medical doctor, in the last 3 years
New
5,000 federal immigration spaces reserved through the Provincial Nominees Program to nominate medical doctors with job offers or letters of support to live and work in Canada permanently
New
Medical doctors nominated by a province or territory will also get a work permit processed in 14 days, so they can work while they wait for permanent residence
You can include your family members in your application
Find your pathway to Canada
To work as a medical doctor in Canada, you must first:
- get your foreign credentials assessed, and
- get licensed as a medical doctor in Canada through a provincial or territorial regulatory authority
Canada’s healthcare sector and immigration
31%
of family physicians in Canada were internationally trained in 2024
1 in 4
health care workers are immigrants
More than 11,000
health care workers arrived in 2024 through economic immigration programs
Others working in the health care system
If you work in health care, but aren’t a medical doctor, you may be eligible for different programs.
We will continue to use Express Entry to invite candidates with other health care work experience. You may also have other options for immigrating to Canada.
You may need to get your foreign credentials assessed first, which can take time.