The Immigration Medical Assessment

The Panel Physician sends the completed immigration medical examination (IMM 1017E, IMM 5419E and other reports) to the appropriate CIC regional medical office. The CIC medical officer will conduct a review and assessment of the files.  This process is referred to as an immigration medical assessment.   Upon completion of this assessment, the regional medical office enters the result of these assessments in GCMS, which in turn notifies the responsible visa/immigration office.

An applicant may be found inadmissible by the visa or immigration officer (under A38(1)) if a medical officer has concluded that the applicant's health condition:

• is likely to be a danger to public health or public safety or
• might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services (R20).

In cases of medical inadmissibility the regional medical officer will prepare and send to the visa office a Medical Notification IMM 5365B that contains the results of the examination. Although this information is available for the visa officer to view in GCMS, an original signed copy is also forwarded by mail to the responsible visa/immigration office.

For more information, see section on Medical Refusals.

A medical assessment is interchangeable and can be used for other immigration categories, unless the medical officer imposed one of the following limitations on the assessment:

The most commonly used limitations are:

• “Assessed as excessive demand exempt only”.  A new immigration medical examination is required if the applicant applies under an immigration category that is no longer excessive demand exempt (e.g. the foreign national applied as sponsored spouse (FC-1) and now applies as Federal Skilled Worker)
• “Assessed as Temporary Resident only”. A new immigration medical examination is required if the applicant applies for permanent resident status or extend his or her stay in Canada.

Applicants with a condition of public health importance may be determined to require medical surveillance after their entry into Canada. Officers will not issue a visa to anyone who is deemed to be a danger to public health or safety. If such a case should arise and if compelling circumstances warrant admission, advice should be sought from the medical officer responsible for the area. Special travel and public health protection procedures, including upon arrival, may be necessary.

For more information, please see the section Medical Surveillance.