Canada Medical Inadmissibility – Things You Should Know!

Medical inadmissibility is one of the condition that is applicable to individuals applying to visit, study, work or live permanently in Canada. So, IRCC can refuse your visa if they find out from your medical exam that you are medically inadmissible to Canada. There are 3 possible reasons for medical inadmissibility.

• Danger to public health.
• Danger to public safety.
• Excessive demand on health or social services (So, this article discusses the new changes implemented in 2018 on calculation of excessive demand).

As per IRCC’s data, two-thirds of all IRCC clients who are inadmissible on health grounds related to excessive demand were from four countries. Philippines – 32% India – 14% China – 13% Iran – 7%. Furthermore, 65% of Philippines medical inadmissibility cases and 34% Indian medical inadmissibility cases are due to chronic liver or kidney disease.

In June 2018, Canadian government made some changes to the excessive demand policy. Under the new policy, the cost threshold amount was increased. This amount is used to decide whether the cost of a medical condition will put excessive demand on Canada’s health and social services or not.

Some of the implemented changes in 2018 were —

• The threshold cost for deciding medical inadmissibility has been tripled.
• Also, there is longer an exceptional period of 10 years to calculate the cost of health and social services
• Furthermore, with regard to excessive demand assessments, there has been a distinction between the officers who handle medical information versus those who handle non-medical information submitted by applicants. Additional training is to be provided to medical officers.
• Additionally, the very definition of social services has changed- personal support services, social and vocational rehabilitation services, and special education have been removed.

A Nearly Review of These Changes Shows That:

• The government of Canada has been able to admit more immigrants with “manageable” health conditions than it would have in the past. So, these people have now been welcomed to Canada and have made significant economic contributions to the country.
• The cost of health and social services for migrants has not increased greatly, but only slightly.