Immigration medical exam exemptions announced

IMPACT – MEDIUM

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has temporarily exempted some Canada-based foreign nationals from having to take an additional medical exam as part of their application for permanent residence.

The exemption will remain in place until Dec. 28, 2021, and will apply to:

• In-Canada foreign nationals who have submitted a new permanent residence or visa application or have a pending permanent residence application and have not completed a new immigration medical exam.
• In-Canada foreign nationals who have competed an immigration medical exam within the last five years and were found to pose no risk to public health, or reported to public health authorities for monitoring.
• In-Canada foreign nationals who have not left Canada for more than six months in the last year to live in a country that has higher incidences of a “serious communicable disease” than Canada.

Additional Information: A foreign national’s family members who live in Canada may be eligible for the medical exam exemption if they meet the aforementioned criteria. A list of countries that require an immigration medical exam is found here.

BAL Analysis: The exemption intends to streamline application processing for low-risk in-Canada applicants and helps the Canadian government process as many applications as possible this year to meet its targets that were not met in 2020.

This alert has been provided by Berry Appleman & Leiden. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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