Canada immigration exempts medical exams for in-land applicants

The immigration department of Canada exempts additional medical exams temporarily for applicants who are applying for their permanent residency provided that they are in Canada. All foreign nationals who are applying for permanent resident visa must provide their medical examination results or a unique medical identifier number from their previous medical exam.

The new Canadian immigration policy applies to all foreign nationals in Canada who either:
• Followed the requirement to report to heath authorities for monitoring or completed their medical exam within the last five (5) years and shows no risk to Canada’s public health or safety;
• Have stayed in Canada for the last year and have not left Canada for more than six (6) months to live in another country that is included in the list of of countries that require immigration medical exam;
• Have submitted an application for permanent residency and still have not completed a new immigration medical exam;
Family members may also be eligible for the said temporary exemption policy if they also meet the above-mentioned criteria and if they are presently in Canada. As per the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the said new policy will help them speed up their immigration application timeline that will allow more temporary residents of Canada to be able to receive their full permanent resident status.

Also, this new policy will help support Canadian government’s goal of having 401,000 new immigrants by the end of this year as Canada is still falling short of the target as of April 2021. Currently, there is a huge number of immigration applicants in Canada having the government focus on putting effort on giving different pathways to permanent residence to all temporary residents of the country.

This temporary measure took effect on June 30, 2021 and will last until December 28, 2021.