Physicians with Canadian Work Experience: Express Entry Category Guide 2026

Imagine spending years training as a physician, then arriving in Canada on a temporary work permit, serving patients in underserved communities, and still facing an uncertain immigration future. For hundreds of doctors working in Canada, this was the reality until recently.

On February 19, 2026, Canada changed that reality in a meaningful and measurable way. IRCC held the first-ever Express Entry draw exclusively for physicians with Canadian work experience — and the results sent shockwaves through the immigration community. A CRS cut-off of just 169 meant that virtually every eligible physician in the Express Entry pool received an Invitation to Apply. This blog unpacks everything a physician in Canada needs to know about this groundbreaking category.

Canada’s Doctor Shortage: The Context That Explains Everything

To understand why Canada created this category, you first need to understand the scale of the problem it is trying to solve. Canada faces a physician shortage that has reached crisis proportions in communities across the country. According to data cited by federal and provincial health authorities, more than six million Canadians do not have access to a regular family doctor. Rural and remote communities are disproportionately affected, with entire towns relying on locum physicians or emergency departments for primary care.

The shortage is not a new phenomenon. It has been building for decades, driven by an aging physician workforce, inadequate medical school training capacity relative to population growth, and increasing per-capita demand for healthcare services as Canada’s own population ages. Provincial governments have attempted various solutions — international recruitment campaigns, streamlined credential recognition programs, satellite clinic models — but the gap persists.

Immigration has long been recognized as one of the most effective tools for addressing health human resource shortages. Canada already recruits thousands of internationally trained doctors each year. However, the immigration pathways available to physicians — particularly those already working in Canada on temporary permits — were not well-designed to capture and retain this talent efficiently. The Express Entry physician category is a direct solution to that structural gap.

The New Category: What IRCC Announced and When

The physicians with Canadian work experience category was first announced on December 8, 2025, as part of a broader package of immigration measures designed to boost Canada’s supply of doctors. Minister Diab confirmed at the February 18, 2026 announcement that the first draw under this category would occur imminently.

That first draw happened on February 19, 2026. Here are the exact statistics:

The CRS cut-off of 169 is historically significant. Prior to this draw, the second-lowest cut-off in Express Entry history was a pandemic-era Canadian Experience Class draw that used a score of 75 — an anomaly resulting from a deliberate one-time policy to clear a backlog. Outside of that exception, no category had ever come close to 169. For comparison, most category-based draws in 2024 and 2025 required scores in the 350-480 range.

The implication is clear: this category was designed to capture essentially the entire pool of eligible physicians, not to be selective among them based on CRS score. The bottleneck is eligibility, not ranking.

Who Qualifies? Eligibility Requirements Explained in Detail

To receive an ITA under the physicians with Canadian work experience category, you must meet all of the following criteria:

Understanding Fee-for-Service: Why This Regulatory Clarification Matters

One of the most practically significant aspects of this category is how IRCC has chosen to treat fee-for-service work arrangements. In Canada, the majority of physicians — including family doctors and many specialists — are not salaried employees. Instead, they bill provincial health insurance plans directly for each service rendered. This billing model is known as fee-for-service.

Under the standard Express Entry eligibility rules, salaried employment is the typical model used to establish work experience. Fee-for-service arrangements created genuine ambiguity: were physicians who billed the province directly considered self-employed (which historically did not count toward Express Entry work experience) or employed?

IRCC’s regulatory clarification for the physician category explicitly confirms that eligible work experience includes experience gained through fee-for-service arrangements with provincial health authorities. This is a policy decision of enormous practical importance. Without this clarification, a large proportion of Canadian physicians would have been unable to demonstrate qualifying work experience for Express Entry purposes, even though they were clearly contributing to the Canadian healthcare system.

If you are a physician currently working in Canada under a fee-for-service model, this means your work experience counts. Document it carefully, including total hours worked, billing records, and any provincial licences or registration you hold.

Provincial Credential Recognition: The Other Half of the Picture

Credential recognition is a parallel process to immigration and must not be confused with it. To work as a physician in Canada, you must be licensed by the relevant provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons — and this process is separate from and independent of your immigration status.

However, the two pathways are deeply intertwined in practice. A physician who is working in Canada on a temporary work permit must hold a provincial licence to practice. The express entry category assumes that eligible candidates are already practicing medicine in Canada, which means they have already cleared the credential recognition hurdle.

If you are a foreign-trained physician who has not yet been licensed in Canada and is considering whether to pursue this pathway, the credential recognition process should be your first focus. The Medical Council of Canada, the provincial Colleges, and various bridge training programs facilitate this process. Once you are licensed and working, the immigration pathway through category-based Express Entry becomes available to you.

How Many More Physician Draws Can We Expect in 2026?

IRCC has not published a formal schedule for how many physician-category draws will occur in 2026 or at what intervals. However, the policy signals suggest that draws will occur periodically throughout the year. IRCC’s general approach to category draws has been to run them every few weeks or months depending on the category and the labour market conditions.

Given that the first draw issued 391 ITAs and reached essentially the entire eligible pool (a CRS of 169 captures virtually everyone), future draws will depend on how many new eligible physicians enter the pool in the interim. As new physicians accumulate 12 months of Canadian work experience and create Express Entry profiles, the pool grows, triggering the need for additional draws.

Our recommendation: if you are a physician approaching the 12-month mark of Canadian work experience, create your Express Entry profile immediately upon becoming eligible. Do not wait. The draw could occur at any time, and you need an active profile to be included.

Practical Steps for Physicians Right Now

If you are a physician currently working in Canada and wondering what to do, here is a clear action plan: