Immigration Corner | Medical reports and medical inadmissibility

 

FIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY TO LIVE PERMANENTLY IN CANADA SIGN UP HERE

Dear Miss Powell,

I got a job offer from an employer in Canada. Can I just go to the nearest doctor to get my medical report for a work permit? Why do they need a medical report? What will they be checking for? What if they find something? I await your response. Thanks.

– D.G.

Dear D.G.,

Any individual applying for a temporary or permanent resident visa to Canada could be subject to medical examination by an approved doctor. Medical reports could be requested for applications such as work permit, study permit, some visitor’s visa application and applications for permanent residence. When you apply, you will be advised whether you will need to provide the report.

Most applicants are required to do various medical tests and checks with an approved medical practitioner as a part of the application process. The doctor is expected to submit a report to the Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the report must detail the medical risks, if any, of granting you temporary or permanent status in Canada.

FIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY TO LIVE PERMANENTLY IN CANADA SIGN UP HERE

PANEL PHYSICIAN

You must visit one of the pre-approved doctors to do your medical exam. You cannot just go to the nearest doctor, unless that doctor is a panel physician approved by IRCC.

To find out if a doctor is on the approved list you need to visit the Government’s website at www.canada.ca to book an appointment with the doctor. Note that due to the pandemic, some doctors may not be conducting examinations, so you should check the list and call, as the list is constantly being updated.

As of the date of writing this article, here are some examples of the physicians that are approved for Jamaica – Dilini de Silva-Chen, Horace Fisher, Barbara E. Isaacs, Peter Wellington and Rosemary King-Barclay; for Trinidad – Renata Pooran; for St Lucia – Keturah Edwin-Tobias; and for the Grand Cayman –Else Christoffersen.

FIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY TO LIVE PERMANENTLY IN CANADA SIGN UP HERE

MEDICAL EXAMINATION

The medical examinations are usually limited to a regular physical exam. This may include a questionnaire of your medical history and an assessment of your mental state. The examination also include blood tests, urine tests and X-rays. If additional tests or examinations are required, you will be notified.

The medical examination is a way for the government of Canada to determine if you are healthy enough to do the required job, if you are a danger to public health and safety, or if you will pose an excessive demand on the health and social services in Canada.

The Immigration, Refugee and Protection Act (IRPA) provides that a foreign national is deemed inadmissible on health grounds if their health condition is likely to be a danger to public health; is likely to be a danger to public safety; or might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services.

FIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY TO LIVE PERMANENTLY IN CANADA SIGN UP HERE

EXCESSIVE DEMAND

A finding of ‘excessive demand’ usually results an individual being deemed ‘medically inadmissible’ and given a procedural fairness letter. However, the law also says that the ‘excessive demand’ barrier is not applicable in the case of a foreign national who is exempt from these provisions. The persons that would be exempted are individuals who are being sponsored under the family class such as a spouse, common-law partner, child of a sponsor, a refugee, or a protected person.

FIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY TO LIVE PERMANENTLY IN CANADA SIGN UP HERE

The term excessive demand on health and social services is define in the IRPA Regulations as a “demand for care for which the anticipated cost would exceed the average Canadian per capita health services cost over a period of five consecutive years, from the date of the person’s most recent immigration medical examination”. That means that IRCC deems that the individual will incur health and service cost more than $102,585 over five years, or $20,517 per year, based on the 2019 report.

It also applies to ‘a demand on health services or social services that would add to existing waiting lists and would increase the rate of mortality and morbidity in Canada because of an inability to provide timely services to Canadian citizens or permanent residents’.

FIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY TO LIVE PERMANENTLY IN CANADA SIGN UP HERE

An officer will review the results of the medical examination to determine if an individual is deemed medically inadmissible to Canada based on the laws and regulations at the time of the application.

These rules are constantly being evaluated, and so if you think you could be deemed medically inadmissible due to issues such as kidney disease, cancers, diabetes, lupus, HIV, cerebral palsy, Crohn’s and rare diseases, to name a few, I suggest that you consult with an immigration lawyer before submitting your application. An authorised immigration lawyer may be able to help you to act pre-emptively or prepare an appropriate response to a procedural fairness letter.

Deidre S. Powell is an authorised immigration lawyer located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Contact her via www.deidrepowell.com or via Facebook, Instagram or call 613.695.8777