Physicians Express Entry Draw: September 3 Invites 229 at CRS 198, Second-Lowest Ever | ImmigraCan

IRCC (*Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada*, Canada's immigration authority) issued 229 invitations to apply (ITAs) in a category-based round for Physicians with Canadian Work Experience on September 3, 2026, with a CRS (*Comprehensive Ranking System*, Express Entry's points system) cutoff of 198 points. It is the second-lowest cutoff ever recorded in this category, behind only the inaugural physicians round of February 19, 2026, and the 52nd Express Entry draw of the year.

The Numbers of the September 3 Round

• Date: September 3, 2026
• Category: Physicians with Canadian Work Experience
• Invitations issued: 229
• CRS cutoff: 198 points
• Tie-break rule: August 6, 2026, at 19:40:38 UTC

As with every category-based round, the tie-break line decides who among the candidates sitting exactly at 198 points actually received an invitation. Only physicians whose Express Entry profile was already active before that date and time made the cut; anyone who entered the pool at that score afterward is still waiting for the next round.

A Category That Keeps Swinging

This is the third Physicians with Canadian Work Experience round since IRCC created the category, and the cutoff has moved sharply each time:

• February 19, 2026 — the inaugural round: 391 ITAs at CRS 169, the lowest score ever recorded in any Express Entry round since the system launched in 2015
• June 24, 2026 — 271 ITAs at CRS 223, the highest cutoff the category has seen so far
• September 3, 2026 — 229 ITAs at CRS 198

There is no straight line here. The cutoff jumped 54 points between February and June, then dropped 25 points between June and September, while the invitation volume has fallen each round. That swing is a direct result of the category's small, fluctuating pool rather than a change in policy — IRCC has not altered the eligibility rules for physicians since the category launched.

Why the Pool Behaves This Way

Physicians with Canadian Work Experience is one of the narrowest category-based rounds IRCC runs. To qualify, a candidate needs at least 12 months of full-time work experience (or the part-time equivalent) as a physician in Canada within the previous three years — meaning every eligible candidate is already practicing medicine in the country, not applying from abroad. On top of that, the candidate still has to meet the base requirements for one of Express Entry's federal programs, most often the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW).

That combination keeps the eligible pool small compared to categories like Healthcare and Social Services, which draws from a much wider range of occupations and does not require Canadian work experience. A small pool means each round can move the cutoff by dozens of points depending on exactly how many physicians happen to be active in the pool that week — which is exactly what has happened across the three rounds so far in 2026.

Three Rounds in the Same Week

The physicians round did not happen in isolation. It sat inside a run of three Express Entry draws in four days:

• September 1 — Canadian Experience Class (CEC): 2,000 ITAs, CRS cutoff 521 (see that coverage)
• September 3 — Physicians with Canadian work experience: 229 ITAs, CRS cutoff 198
• September 4 — Healthcare and Social Services: 3,500 ITAs, CRS cutoff 475 (see that coverage)

The pattern for 2026 keeps holding: IRCC is running frequent, narrow category-based rounds instead of large general draws open to the whole pool. A 198-point cutoff for physicians says nothing about the score needed for CEC or Healthcare — each category moves on its own.

Permanent Residence Is Not a Medical License

An invitation and, eventually, permanent residence through this category do not authorize anyone to practice medicine in Canada. Provincial licensing — through bodies like the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the relevant province — is a separate process, governed by that regulator, not by IRCC. A physician who receives an ITA still needs to go through provincial credentialing, exams and, in many cases, a period of supervised practice before being licensed to work independently.

If You're a Physician Working in Canada and Not in the Pool Yet

1. Confirm your 12 months of Canadian physician work experience falls within the last three years and that you also meet the criteria for CEC or FSW — the category invitation depends on both. ImmigraCan's free eligibility quiz checks your profile against the federal and provincial programs currently open, without promising an outcome, since the final decision always belongs to IRCC.
2. If your CRS sits below 198, double-check your profile is complete and active rather than assuming the score is out of reach — this category's cutoff has already ranged from 169 to 223 in a single year.
3. Start provincial licensing steps in parallel with your Express Entry profile, not after an ITA arrives. The 60-day clock for the complete application (eAPR, *electronic Application for Permanent Residence*) does not pause for credential recognition. The ImmigraCan programs catalog compares this category against the provincial health-worker streams active in 2026.

A note from my own experience: I validated my electrician's license (309A) in Ontario between 2019 and 2022, and the mistake I'd warn anyone against is treating credential recognition and the immigration pathway as sequential steps. They run on separate clocks, in separate systems, and waiting for one to finish before starting the other is what costs people the most time — whether the regulated profession is medicine, a trade, or something else entirely.

What to Watch Next

With three rounds now on the books and cutoffs ranging from 169 to 223, the physicians category is still too new and too volatile to read a trend into any single number. What is worth tracking is whether IRCC keeps running these rounds on a roughly quarterly cadence (February, June, September so far) and whether the invitation volume keeps shrinking — 391, then 271, then 229 — which would suggest the pool of eligible physicians is thinning rather than refilling.

*Data for this round comes from IRCC's official Express Entry rounds dashboard. This content is informational and does not replace legal or immigration advice — ImmigraCan is not affiliated with the Government of Canada. For your specific case, consult a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) or a specialized lawyer.*