Canada is currently undergoing challenges with a lack of qualified physicians in the country. Therefore, IRCC plans to exempt them from fulfilling the current requirements under temporary residency to apply for permanent residence via Express Entry streams. However, these physicians must reside in the country with temporary residency status.
Physicians who are presently in Canada face difficulties in qualifying for Express Entry because Canadian doctors use a model of payment known as the “fee for service.” Such a payment model differs from the typical relationship between an employer and an employee.
This situation also indicates that the physicians working in Canada as temporary residents appear as self-employed on documents.
Moreover, self-employed individuals with the above-mentioned experience tend to disqualify for a majority of economic immigration pathways, particularly the ones offered by Express Entry. Self-employment of an individual implies his ineligibility. However, if that individual has acquired at least one year of work experience abroad or as a Canadian employee, they might become eligible under Express Entry programs. Fraser believes this requirement majorly acts as an obstacle for those seeking to apply for PR. Therefore, removing this requirement will allow physicians to live in Canada. Fraser even talked at length about the contribution of physicians while he was in Nova Scotia. He even appreciated the physicians and their efforts to keep the families and the aging population healthy in the province. He went on to say that their skills remained crucial for the Canadian communities and that they would even become their neighbors, friends, and community leaders in the longer run. Any Physician looking forward to settling in Nova Scotia or any other province in Canada would create a beneficial situation. He even claimed that the measure is part of IRCC’s initiatives to keep physicians in the country and other healthcare workers. Approximately 43,00 permanent residents emerged in the country under the healthcare programs of the TR to PR pathway.
Acute shortage of healthcare workers
The country comprises an employment vacancy rate of 6 percent in the healthcare sector. The second quarter of 2022 required people to fill over 136,000 job positions in the healthcare sector. Manitoba experienced the highest employment vacancy rate at 6.7 percent.
IRCC’s data reports that almost 1 in every four individuals working in the healthcare sector in the country is an immigrant. The total percentage of physicians accounts for 36 percent. The same report even claims that approximately 500,000 healthcare sector workers are above the age of 55 years. These individuals will be meeting their retirement age in a decade. Therefore, the Immigration Levels Plan targets to welcome a record-breaking number of permanent residents from all business fields. The main objective is to fight back against the workforce shortage across all sectors in Canada. A majority of new immigrants are likely to emerge from economic class programs.
This year, 8,600 applications for temporary and permanent residency by foreign nationals received acceptance from IRCC. These foreign nationals included individuals seeking to work as healthcare workers in Canada.
Major changes on the horizon for Express Entry
Introducing the new measure for physicians marks the beginning of changes in the Express Entry system. The changes will continue to occur in 2023 as well. In June of the previous year, Bill C-19 gained acceptance through Royal Assent in the parliament. This bill will likely provide more authority to IRCC to focus more on Express Entry candidates with relevant educational qualifications, work experience, and language proficiency. This means that there will be less value attached to candidates acquiring high CRS scores. The norm will change in the future as CRS scores alone will have no significance.
Fraser even discussed that the new authorities would permit Canada to send invitations to candidates who will be absolutely fit for the labor market success. These candidates must hold a better position to contribute to the Canadian economy.
They must not find a place in already strong labor sectors.
Fraser said that if there is a situation where one specific sector is flooded with applications, but that sector doesn’t need immigrants, the current Express Entry system will more likely get in more inappropriate workers to Canada. Therefore, this will only create more imbalance in the Canadian economy.
Express Entry
Express Entry is an online system for managing immigration applications and works on a point-based system currently. The point system is known as the Comprehensive Ranking System, and it provides scores to candidates under three economic streams such as the Federal Skilled Worker Program, CEC, and the FSTP. IRCC maintains its processing time with its standard period of six months. Candidates accomplishing higher scores receive an invitation to apply for PR.
