Physicians Express Entry Draw: 271 ITAs at CRS 223

EXPRESS ENTRY · PHYSICIANS DRAW #421 · JUNE 24 2026

By VG Immigration Editorial Desk · Reviewed by RCIC-IRB Dimple Verma (R708308)

Published June 24, 2026 — Brampton, Ontario

Physicians Express Entry Draw June 24, 2026: 271 ITAs at CRS 223 — Second-Ever Physicians Round Confirms IRCC’s Health-Workforce Strategy

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada issued 271 invitations to apply for permanent residence in an Express Entry draw targeted at the Physicians with Canadian Work Experience category on June 24, 2026. The minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score was 223, and the tie-breaking rule fell on Express Entry profiles created before May 31, 2026 at 18:13 UTC. This is the second-ever Physicians category-based draw and the second of 2026, following the February 19, 2026 round that issued 391 ITAs at CRS 169.

With this round, IRCC has now conducted 33 Express Entry draws in 2026 and issued 85,067 invitations year-to-date. The Physicians category has now issued 662 ITAs in 2026 across two rounds, both with cutoffs structurally below the standard 460–510 band that characterizes other category draws. As anticipated in our companion analysis, IRCC is actively using narrow-quota, low-CRS Physicians rounds to channel practising doctors into PR processing without forcing them through the higher-volume Healthcare and Social Services category.

Draw #421 — Key Facts at a Glance

Field	Detail
Draw date	June 24, 2026
Draw number	#421 of 2026
Category	Physicians with Canadian Work Experience (2026 — Version 2)
ITAs issued	271
Minimum CRS	223
Tie-breaking rule	Profile created before May 31, 2026 at 18:13 UTC
2026 YTD ITAs (all draws)	85,067
2026 YTD Physicians ITAs	662 (391 in Feb + 271 today)
Last Physicians draw	February 19, 2026 — 391 ITAs at CRS 169

Why the CRS Cutoff Is Only 223 — The Math of Physician Profiles

A CRS of 223 looks impossibly low next to a Canadian Experience Class cutoff of 516 (yesterday’s draw). The reason is structural: the Physicians with Canadian Work Experience category targets practising doctors whose CRS profile is uniquely shaped by the way physician work history is captured under the National Occupational Classification (NOC) system.

Until late 2024, many Canadian physicians could not access Express Entry at all because their work as fee-for-service practitioners was treated as self-employment, which does not count toward Canadian Experience Class. The 2024–2026 reforms restored physician eligibility but the resulting pool is narrow: practising doctors with Canadian experience are far fewer than the total Express Entry pool. With a small eligible pool and very high occupational-skill weighting under the category-draw selection logic, the marginal cutoff sits in the low 200s instead of the 460–510 band typical of Healthcare or Trades.

In plain terms: if you are a physician with Canadian work experience and your profile is correctly tagged in the Physicians category, your CRS score is functionally a formality. The category itself is what selects you. Both 2026 Physicians draws have cleared the field at cutoffs well below 250, which means essentially every eligible physician profile that has been correctly tagged and is in active status will have received an ITA in one of the two rounds.

Eligible NOC Codes for the Physicians Category

The Physicians with Canadian Work Experience category is defined by a tight list of medical NOC codes. To be eligible, a candidate must have 12 months of cumulative full-time (or equivalent part-time) work experience in Canada within the past 36 months in one of the following:

• NOC 31100 — Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine
• NOC 31101 — Specialists in surgery
• NOC 31102 — General practitioners and family physicians
• NOC 31103 — Veterinarians (yes — included in this category by IRCC’s 2026 instructions)

Note that the Physicians category specifically excludes residents and fellows in some interpretations. Residents working under provincial medical-college supervision contracts have historically been a grey area; IRCC’s 2026 instructions are explicit that the experience must be in one of the four NOC codes above, and that work must be paid and recognized under provincial regulatory frameworks. Resident salaries paid through teaching hospitals do qualify when documented properly.

How Today’s Draw Compares to February 19, 2026

Metric	February 19, 2026	June 24, 2026	Direction
Draw number	#397	#421	24 draws later
ITAs issued	391	271	Down 30.7%
CRS cutoff	169	223	Up 54 points
Tie-breaking date	— (first draw)	May 31, 2026 18:13 UTC	126-day reach

The 54-point increase in cutoff and the 30.7% reduction in invitation volume reflect a thinning pool. The February draw essentially absorbed the backlog of physicians who had been waiting since the 2024 reform; the June draw is hitting the steady-state intake of physicians who established Canadian experience in the four months since. The 126-day tie-breaking reach (May 31 cutoff for a June 24 draw) confirms that virtually all physician profiles created in the first half of 2026 were considered.

What This Means for the Next-Draw Outlook

Our prediction model from earlier today (see our next-draw prediction analysis) assigned the Physicians category a low individual probability among the unfilled categories, with the headline scenario favouring French (40%) and Trades (25%) for the very next round. Today’s Physicians draw is a useful corrective: IRCC will run small specialty category draws (Physicians, Senior Managers, eventually Researchers and Skilled Military Recruits) opportunistically when the eligible pool reaches a critical threshold, regardless of the larger French and CEC cadence.

This adjustment does not change the broader forecast. The major drivers — French, Trades cleanup, eventually a second Healthcare round and the first 2026 Education round — remain on track. But applicants should expect more interleaved small-category draws like today’s, particularly for categories where IRCC has a strong policy commitment to a quota.

Strategic Implications for Physician Applicants

1. Profile tagging is the single most important step

If you are a Canadian-experience physician and your profile is not correctly tagged in the Physicians category, you will be invisible to category-based draws regardless of your CRS score. Profile tagging requires that your NOC code, work-history dates, and employment-type fields all align with IRCC’s category-eligibility logic. We have seen physician profiles miss the Physicians category because the candidate listed NOC 31301 (registered nurse) for a previous role rather than 31102 for the dominant role.

2. The 60-day ITA window is unforgiving for physician documentation

Once your ITA arrives, you have 60 days to submit a complete permanent-residence application. Physicians face several documentary requirements that cannot be rushed:

• Provincial medical-college registration certificate and certificate of good standing.
• Hospital privileges letter (if applicable to your practice arrangement).
• CaRMS placement letter or residency completion confirmation (for recent graduates).
• Provincial billing-number documentation (for fee-for-service practitioners).
• Specialty board certification (Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada).
• Reference letters from medical directors covering each role in the qualifying 36-month window.

3. The language minimum is not the barrier — but it must be valid

The Physicians category requires standard Express Entry language thresholds (CLB 7 in all four abilities for English-language candidates under the Federal Skilled Worker stream that underpins the Physicians category). Most practising physicians clear this easily but the test results must still be valid (within 2 years) at the time of ITA. See our complete 2026 IRCC language requirements guide for the full CELPIP/IELTS/PTE Core/TEF/TCF framework.

All 2026 Category-Based Draws — Updated Through June 24

Date	Category	ITAs	CRS
Jun 24, 2026	Physicians with Canadian Work Experience	271	223
May 28, 2026	French-Language proficiency	4,500	409
Apr 29, 2026	French-Language proficiency	4,000	400
Apr 15, 2026	French-Language proficiency	4,000	419
Apr 2, 2026	Trades	3,000	477
Mar 18, 2026	French-Language proficiency	4,000	393
Mar 5, 2026	Senior Managers with Canadian Work Experience	250	429
Mar 4, 2026	French-Language proficiency	5,500	397
Feb 20, 2026	Healthcare and Social Services	4,000	467
Feb 19, 2026	Physicians with Canadian Work Experience	391	169
Feb 6, 2026	French-Language proficiency	8,500	400

Eleven category-based rounds in 2026 to date, totalling 38,412 ITAs — about 45.2% of the 2026 invitation volume.

How VG Immigration Can Help Physician Applicants

RCIC-IRB Dimple Verma (R708308) and the VG Immigration team have worked with internationally trained physicians, Canadian graduates, residents, and fellows navigating both the Physicians Express Entry category and the broader Healthcare and Social Services route. Our practice covers profile tagging, provincial medical-college liaison, hospital privileges letters, billing-number documentation, and the careful sequencing of language tests and ECAs for IMG physicians.

For broader Express Entry and 2026 immigration context, read our companion analyses:

• Next Express Entry Draw Prediction June 2026 — Category Probability Analysis
• CEC Draw June 23, 2026 — 4,000 ITAs at CRS 516
• Express Entry Reform 2026 — PNP Draw June 22
• IRCC Language Requirements 2026 — Complete Guide
• Atlantic Immigration Program 2026 — Change-of-Employer Rules
• Canada Emigration 2026 Record Q1 — PR Strategy
• TR-to-PR Pathway 2026 — Major Cities Excluded
• Canada’s New TR-to-PR Pathway for 33,000 Workers

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VG Immigration Services Inc. — Authorized RCIC-IRB Dimple Verma (R708308). 2 County Court Boulevard, Suite 400, Brampton, Ontario L6W 3W8. Draw data reflects IRCC’s published Express Entry rounds-of-invitation summary as of June 24, 2026. This article is information only and not legal advice. Individual case outcomes vary.