Healthcare & Social Services Express Entry Draws
Healthcare and social services occupation rounds invite Express Entry candidates with at least six months of continuous full-time skilled work experience in an eligible healthcare or social-services NOC code. Cutoffs have ranged from the low 400s to the high 400s.
Since 2023, IRCC has run 19 Healthcare rounds, issuing 42,741 invitations to apply. CRS cutoffs have ranged from 169 to 510, averaging around 425.
Last updated September 4, 2026 — reflects draws through round #441. Source: IRCC Express Entry rounds.
Healthcare CRS cutoff trend, 2024–2026
Every Healthcare round plotted by date and CRS cutoff. Hover or tap any point for round details.
Each line traces one round type's CRS cutoffs over time. Hover or tap any point to see round details. 12 rounds plotted.
2026 Healthcare Express Entry draw trends
In 2026 so far, IRCC has held 6 Healthcare rounds, issuing 12,391 invitations. The CRS cutoff averaged 335, a -146-point drop versus the 2025 average of 481.
The most accessible 2026 Healthcare round so far was round #397 on February 19, 2026, with a cutoff of 169. The most competitive was round #422 on June 25, 2026 at CRS 475. For a broader view of 2026 Express Entry activity across every draw type, see the full draw history.
Who qualifies for Healthcare Express Entry draws
Candidates need at least six months of continuous full-time (or equivalent part-time) skilled work experience within the last three years in an eligible NOC code. The 2025 list covers physicians, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, pharmacists, dentists, psychologists, social workers, dietitians, optometrists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, paramedics, dental hygienists, and several other regulated and allied-health occupations. Canadian and foreign experience both count.
Why Healthcare CRS cutoffs look the way they do
The Healthcare and Social Services category was added in 2023 to respond to labour shortages in regulated health occupations. IRCC expanded the eligible NOC list in 2025 to include social workers and additional allied-health roles. Cutoffs generally sit in the 420 to 480 range, lower than general draws but higher than French-specific rounds.
Want to know where your profile would land? Use the CRS calculator to estimate your score against these rounds.
BCPNP Care draws: childcare and healthcare EOI cutoffs are trending down
BC runs targeted Skills Immigration draws for its Care stream, and through July 2026 the childcare, healthcare and veterinary care categories have posted back-to-back score drops. In the consultant cases we cover, three of four July ITAs were in the Care category: two early childhood educators and one healthcare role. The pattern is a slow, round-by-round decline of roughly two to three points, not a sudden collapse, because the pool keeps refilling. If you work in a BC health or childcare occupation, the direction is encouraging, but a predicted score only tells you direction, not whether your own file is ready. What matters is your EOI score, your wage, your work region, and how far you sit from the current invitation range. Our BCPNP pool-trends analysis explains the Care, Build and Innovate draw rhythm, what a shrinking pool does and doesn't mean for your odds, and the common trap of confusing the Skilled Worker entry requirement with EOI experience points.
OINP 2026: How Ontario's reform affects healthcare candidates
Health-related occupations remain one of Ontario's clearest priorities under the OINP 2026 reform. Through April 22, 2026, OINP issued roughly 3,525 invitations across health, doctors, nursing, and early childhood education categories — close to a quarter of all invitations year-to-date. Doctors, nursing, and community-support roles take up a big chunk of the mix, and early childhood education keeps showing up alongside them. Ontario's provincial focus on healthcare lines up with the federal Healthcare and Social Services category that drives this page: candidates with eligible NOC experience often have viable paths through both Express Entry healthcare draws and OINP employer-sponsored streams. After the May 30, 2026 regulatory changes take effect, expect Ontario to keep pushing healthcare-targeted invitations, with stream design adjusted around specific occupations and shortage regions.
BCPNP April 2026: Care category prioritizes named healthcare and ECE roles
British Columbia is heading in the same direction. The BCPNP April 23, 2026 update consolidates future invitations under three labels — Care, Build, Innovate — and the Care bucket is the clearest opportunity lane for healthcare candidates. The province has 5,254 nominations for 2026, with at least 35 percent earmarked for applicants working outside Metro Vancouver. Health Authority hires remain one of the most stable priority lanes, and the broader Care category covers nursing, allied health, early childhood education (ECE certificate emphasized; ECEA was excluded last year), and veterinary care. A separate 250-spot rural and remote health authority invitation for cleaning and security workers is expected to open in June 2026. Federal Healthcare category-based draws and BCPNP Care-stream invitations together give credentialed candidates a realistic dual track, especially outside Metro Vancouver.
High-Wage Occupations: healthcare NOCs are the structural top of the list
Healthcare candidates are the structural beneficiaries of IRCC's proposed high-wage CRS factor. The design measures the candidate's NOC against the overall national median wage, and the Canadian healthcare wage distribution puts most regulated health occupations comfortably above that threshold — often well above. Family and specialist physicians, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, and psychologists routinely clear the highest tier IRCC discussed at the April 2026 information session, the 2x multiplier example used for top-bracket scoring. Registered nurses, registered practical nurses, physiotherapists, dental hygienists, and several allied-health roles cluster in the 1.3 to 1.5x band — still inside the high-wage bonus tiers. The C.D. Howe Selection Matters report that informs the reform leans on this exact pattern: occupational wage trajectories in Canadian health care produce the strongest post-landing earnings curves of any category IRCC has on file. None of that erases the credentialing reality — Canadian licensing is still a separate provincial process — but it does mean that for candidates already inside the federal Healthcare category, the new CRS factor is structurally additive, not a hurdle to engineer around.
Ontario Workforce Priority Stream: the PSW education rule health employers must know
For health-sector candidates, the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream carries one specific trap and one clear benefit. The trap is the education rule for personal support workers under NOC 33102: a short PSW course of less than a year does not meet the stream's study threshold. To qualify on the education ground, an applicant needs at least a one-year PSW Ontario College Certificate, and health employers building a job offer around a PSW hire should confirm the credential length before relying on it. The benefit is the recent-graduate window, now three years rather than two, which re-opens the TEER 0–3 pathway for a wider band of recently-qualified health graduates and lets them use the lower regional wage threshold instead of the Job Bank median. Regulated health roles that legally require a licence get a further break: where the applicant already holds the required licence or authorization, meeting that requirement can exempt the work-experience and education conditions entirely. Employers still have to clear the stream's revenue and local-staff thresholds, and the offer must be full-time and indeterminate — but for licensed health occupations, the candidate-side bar is lighter than the headline rules suggest.
Healthcare Express Entry CRS cutoffs — all 19 rounds
Newest first. The CRS column shows the lowest-ranked candidate invited in each round. Looking for a different round type? Jump to Canadian Experience Class, Provincial Nominee Program, French Language, or all categories.
| # | Date | Round type | Invitations | CRS cutoff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 441 | September 4, 2026 | Healthcare and Social Services Occupations, 2026-Version 3 | 3,500 | 475 |
| 440 | September 3, 2026 | Physicians with Canadian Work Experience, 2026-Version 1 | 229 | 198 |
| 422 | June 25, 2026 | Healthcare and Social Services Occupations, 2026-Version 3 | 4,000 | 475 |
| 421 | June 24, 2026 | Physicians with Canadian Work Experience, 2026-Version 1 | 271 | 223 |
| 398 | February 20, 2026 | Healthcare and Social Services Occupations, 2026-Version 3 | 4,000 | 467 |
| 397 | February 19, 2026 | Physicians with Canadian Work Experience, 2026-Version 1 | 391 | 169 |
| 385 | December 11, 2025 | Healthcare and social services occupations (Version 2) | 1,000 | 476 |
| 379 | November 14, 2025 | Healthcare and social services occupations (Version 2) | 3,500 | 462 |
| 373 | October 15, 2025 | Healthcare and social services occupations (Version 2) | 2,500 | 472 |
| 362 | August 19, 2025 | Healthcare and social services occupations (Version 2) | 2,500 | 470 |
| 357 | July 22, 2025 | Healthcare and social services occupations (Version 2) | 4,000 | 475 |
| 349 | June 4, 2025 | Healthcare and social services occupations (Version 2) | 500 | 504 |
| 345 | May 2, 2025 | Healthcare and social services occupations (Version 2) | 500 | 510 |
| 327 | November 20, 2024 | Healthcare occupations (Version 1) | 3,000 | 463 |
| 301 | July 5, 2024 | Healthcare occupations (Version 1) | 3,750 | 445 |
| 284 | February 14, 2024 | Healthcare occupations (Version 1) | 3,500 | 422 |
| 271 | October 26, 2023 | Healthcare occupations (Version 1) | 3,600 | 431 |
| 255 | July 6, 2023 | Healthcare occupations (Version 1) | 1,500 | 463 |
| 252 | June 28, 2023 | Healthcare occupations (Version 1) | 500 | 476 |
Frequently asked questions about Healthcare Express Entry draws
Which occupations qualify for Healthcare Express Entry draws?
Physicians, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurse aides, pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists, social workers, psychologists, dietitians, optometrists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, audiologists, paramedics, and several other NOC codes updated periodically by IRCC.
Do I need Canadian healthcare experience?
No. Six months of eligible experience anywhere, including internationally, counts, provided the role matches an eligible NOC and meets the full-time skilled criteria.
Are international healthcare credentials recognized automatically?
No. An Invitation to Apply is a separate step from provincial licensing. After landing, regulated-health professionals usually still need to complete credential recognition with the relevant provincial regulator before practicing.
How do healthcare draws compare to general draws?
Healthcare-specific rounds typically have cutoffs 30 to 60 points below general rounds, and sometimes more. Candidates in an eligible NOC often wait for a healthcare round rather than a general round.
How often is the healthcare NOC list updated?
IRCC reviews category eligibility roughly once per year, most recently expanding the list in 2025 to include additional allied-health and social-service roles.
Other Express Entry draw categories
Estimate your CRS score
The Comprehensive Ranking System assigns points for age, education, language, and work experience. Calculate yours, then check which of these Healthcare rounds you would have qualified for.
Open the CRS calculator