Who qualified for this draw

According to information published by IRCC, candidates needed to meet two conditions to receive an invitation in this draw: a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of at least 223, and an Express Entry profile created before 6:13 p.m. UTC on May 31, 2026. A total of 271 ITAs were issued in this round, directed at the specific occupational group of Physicians with Canadian Work Experience.

Why physicians have their own category

The Physicians with Canadian Work Experience category was announced by the federal government on December 8, 2025, as one of a package of immigration measures designed to attract and retain doctors. The category covers three physician occupations under the National Occupational Classification (NOC): specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (31100), surgeons (31101), and general practitioners and family physicians (31102). Applicants must have accumulated at least 12 months of eligible full-time (or the part-time equivalent) physician work experience in Canada within the previous three years.

The dedicated pathway addresses a long-standing structural barrier facing physicians. Many foreign-trained doctors practising in Canada work with provincial health systems on a fee-for-service basis, which institutionally resembles self-employment, and the traditional Canadian Experience Class (CEC) generally does not accept self-employed experience, making it difficult for these doctors to qualify for permanent residence on the strength of their Canadian work history. Immigration-industry analysts have noted that the new category was created precisely to unblock this bottleneck, allowing the experience physicians gain delivering publicly funded healthcare in Canada to count toward immigration selection. Beyond the new category, the federal government also reserved an additional 5,000 Provincial Nominee Program spots for provinces and territories to nominate licensed physicians with job offers, and offers nominated physicians 14-day expedited work-permit processing so they can begin working while awaiting permanent residence.

It is worth distinguishing the physicians category from the Healthcare and social services category, which was created in 2025 and expanded the same year: the two are separate pathways. The latter requires six months of work experience that need not have been gained in Canada, while the former requires a longer 12 months and the experience must be as a physician in Canada. Doctors who do not meet the physicians category criteria can still take part in draws through the Healthcare and social services category.

From the first to the second draw: a clear rise in the cut-off

This was the second targeted draw for the physicians category. The first draw was held on February 19, 2026, when 391 invitations were issued with a minimum CRS score of just 169 - the second-lowest cut-off in Express Entry history since 2021, widely seen by the industry as a rare window of opportunity for applicants in this category. By comparison, the cut-off in this June 24 draw rose to 223, while the number of invitations fell to 271. Some immigration agencies interpret the increase as the result of the first round having already invited most of the lower-scoring eligible physicians out of the candidate pool, leaving the pool subsequently more "top-heavy" and driving the cut-off higher this time. Even so, the 223 threshold remains markedly lower than the 500-plus scores common in general all-program draws, and the targeted category remains a more advantageous path for eligible physicians.

Express Entry in 2026: both rounds and invitations tilt toward in-Canada candidates

As of this draw, IRCC has held 33 Express Entry rounds in 2026. Looking at the distribution by draw type, both the number of rounds and the volume of invitations issued are clearly concentrated in categories aimed at in-Canada candidates or people with Canadian experience.

The number of draws by category in 2026 is as follows:

The cumulative number of ITAs issued by category in 2026 is as follows:

As the figures show, the Canadian Experience Class and French-language proficiency categories together already account for more than 80 percent of the year's total invitations, and together with PNP, physicians, senior managers and other categories that likewise favour in-Canada or Canadian-experience candidates, 2026 has so far seen almost none of the large-scale general, all-program draws in the traditional sense.

Behind the policy: doctor shortages alongside "transition from within"

Express Entry's tilt toward in-Canada candidates is consistent with the federal government's current overall immigration approach. Under the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, the government has committed to accelerating the transition of up to 33,000 temporary foreign workers already in Canada to permanent residence over 2026 and 2027, targeting people who have put down roots in their communities, pay their taxes and contribute to the economy; at the same time, the target for admitting new temporary residents has been reduced, with the aim of gradually bringing the share of the temporary population back to a sustainable level. Giving priority to people already living and working in Canada is an expression of this thinking.

The physicians category layers on the additional consideration of easing healthcare staffing shortages. According to IRCC, in 2024 about 5.7 million Canadian adults (about 17 percent of the adult population) and about 765,000 children and adolescents (about 11 percent) reported not having a regular healthcare provider. Opening a path to permanent residence for practising physicians on temporary visas is regarded by officials and the medical community alike as one measure to bolster the healthcare workforce and gradually narrow the gap. For eligible foreign-trained doctors already practising in Canada, the targeted physicians draw offers a lower-threshold, higher-certainty route to permanent residence.