Medical Inadmissibility

If you’re reading this you may be concerned that yourself or a loved one will not be eligible to temporarily or permanently move to Canada. All family members, accompanying or not, must undergo a medical examination by an IRCC assigned medical doctor. All family members must ‘pass’ the examination. If there is a possibility that medical inadmissibility is applicable the application is referred to the Humanitarian Migration and Integrity Division at the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Niagara Falls office. Decision makers determine if an individual might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services in Canada.

The Minister’s delegates do not include the following social services when calculating the costs of health and social services, if the foreign national might reasonably be expected to pose a risk of excessive demand on health or social services:

• special education related services, including services related to the preparation of an individualized education plan and educational assistants
• social and vocational rehabilitation services, including services related to rehabilitation facilities, occupational therapy, behavioural therapy and speech language therapy
• personal, non-professional support services, such as assistance with activities of daily living (for example, bathing, dressing, feeding), meal preparation and housecleaning

These are the criteria to determine if the medical issue causes an ‘excessive demand’ on the Canadian healthcare system,

• a demand on health services or social services for which the anticipated costs exceed triple the average Canadian per capita health services and social services costs over a period of 5 consecutive years immediately following the most recent medical examination required under paragraph A16(2)(b) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), or
• 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 as a result of an inability to provide timely services to Canadian citizens or permanent residents
• UPDATE
• On 4 March 2022 IRCC announced law changes, determined from the Public Policy Regarding Excessive Demand on Health and Social Services:
  1. IRCC increased the excessive demand cost threshold to 3 times the average amount that federal, provincial, and territorial governments spend per capita on certain health and social services; presently, the annual cost threshold is set at $24,057, or $120,285 over 5-years.
  2. The 10-year time period was eliminated from excessive demand calculations and the five-year time period has been universally applied.
  3. “Health services” and “social services,” as used in excessive demand determinations have been redefined, by:
  • removing reference to certain social services like special education services, that persons with disabilities require to help them overcome limitations to their participation in society (social and vocational rehabilitation services, and personal support services).
  • focusing on publicly funded social services that provide constant supervision and care for those who are not able to integrate into society; and
  • refining the definitions to provide clarity to the concepts of majority of funding and of publicly funded services, as well as eliminating any overlap between the definitions of health services and of social services.
  4. Clarifications have been made to which officers are responsible for reviewing medical and non-medical information for applications that deal with excessive demand assessments.

Contact my office at dzande@zandeimmigration.com if you’re unsure and you would like advice. Appointments are available for 30 minute or 1 hour duration to discuss your concerns.