Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) capped a frenetic week of activity on December 12 by inviting 1,000 foreign-trained healthcare and social-services professionals to apply for permanent residence. The invitation round is part of IRCC’s category-based Express Entry system, which lets the minister target occupations facing acute shortages. Candidates needed a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 476 and had to have created their Express Entry profile before November 26.
The new draw unfolded less than 24 hours after a record 6,000 Canadian Experience Class invitations and only four days after the year’s largest Provincial Nominee Program round. That concentration of draws signals Ottawa’s determination to finish 2025 within striking distance of its ambitious admissions target of 485,000 newcomers while tackling sectoral gaps, especially in health care. According to Statistics Canada, vacancy rates in nursing, home care and allied health remain above 9 % despite aggressive domestic recruitment.
For candidates who need help pulling together the right paperwork—whether that means transcripts, police certificates or translations—VisaHQ offers step-by-step support and secure submission services. Its Canada portal (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) keeps applicants updated on the newest Express Entry policies and can streamline the pre-arrival visa process for accompanying family members.
![IRCC issues 1,000 Invitations in first healthcare-focused Express Entry draw of December]()
For employers, the draw is good news: a permanent-residence pathway reduces turnover and allows hospitals, long-term-care operators and private clinics to offer multi-year contracts that were previously difficult to guarantee under time-limited work permits. It also plugs into provincial efforts—Ontario and Nova Scotia among them—to fast-track international credentials for nurses and physicians.
From a candidate perspective, the lower-than-expected CRS cut-off (476 versus 491 in the previous healthcare round) suggests that sustained profile creation is paying off. IRCC statistics show that roughly 38 % of the invited cohort were already living and working in Canada on temporary status, meaning they can continue practising while their permanent-residence applications are processed.
Practical tip: HR teams should audit Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) timelines against Express Entry alternatives for foreign clinicians. Where candidates already meet the one-year Canadian work-experience threshold, switching to the healthcare category draw can shave months off the road to permanence—and dramatically improve retention rates.
The new draw unfolded less than 24 hours after a record 6,000 Canadian Experience Class invitations and only four days after the year’s largest Provincial Nominee Program round. That concentration of draws signals Ottawa’s determination to finish 2025 within striking distance of its ambitious admissions target of 485,000 newcomers while tackling sectoral gaps, especially in health care. According to Statistics Canada, vacancy rates in nursing, home care and allied health remain above 9 % despite aggressive domestic recruitment.
For candidates who need help pulling together the right paperwork—whether that means transcripts, police certificates or translations—VisaHQ offers step-by-step support and secure submission services. Its Canada portal (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) keeps applicants updated on the newest Express Entry policies and can streamline the pre-arrival visa process for accompanying family members.
For employers, the draw is good news: a permanent-residence pathway reduces turnover and allows hospitals, long-term-care operators and private clinics to offer multi-year contracts that were previously difficult to guarantee under time-limited work permits. It also plugs into provincial efforts—Ontario and Nova Scotia among them—to fast-track international credentials for nurses and physicians.
From a candidate perspective, the lower-than-expected CRS cut-off (476 versus 491 in the previous healthcare round) suggests that sustained profile creation is paying off. IRCC statistics show that roughly 38 % of the invited cohort were already living and working in Canada on temporary status, meaning they can continue practising while their permanent-residence applications are processed.
Practical tip: HR teams should audit Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) timelines against Express Entry alternatives for foreign clinicians. Where candidates already meet the one-year Canadian work-experience threshold, switching to the healthcare category draw can shave months off the road to permanence—and dramatically improve retention rates.
