Many questions regarding EE medical exam

[Considerate Tiger]

Hello all, since this is my first post on this forum I hope I am doing it correctly and not violating any forum regulations.

We submitted an express entry application in June 2021 (AOR). We are PNP outland applicants. At the time we followed the advice on this page in not doing an upfront medical exam. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/documents/medical-exams.html

To this date, the medical still shows ‘you do not need to do a medical exam’. And so far the only update we have got was a biometrics invite in Nov21 and now it is showing as confirmed on the account. But since then it was all dead silence.

I follow this forum and immitracker routinely and find out many in fact most people actually just went and did their medical exams when they submitted their EE application (like before covid) (i.e. not following the webpage I quoted above). Many of these applicants have got MEP confirmed, and those expired have had extension or re-medical requests. And some of these people (some even with AOR later than ours) have got even their PPR after.

Here are my questions:
1. Were we right in not doing a medical exam with our initial submission? Or were we interpreting the webpage wrongly?
2. Would not having that medical exam done put us in the ‘slow queue’, as our application is about as raw as one can be and the officers may just skip on to a more completed case file to work on?
3. Has anybody like us (who did not undertake an upfront medical exam) managed to receive a medical invite out of the blue, that asked them to go and do their exam?
4. As for the vast majority of applicants who went and did the exam beforehand, what would be the logic behind? Knowing that the application likely would not close within a year, that they would have to re-do or ask for extension?
5. Would it be of any use, if we book a medical exam today, ‘forcing’ them to somehow update our case?
6. Is there any other thing we can do?

I am sorry if some of my doubts may seem a little dumb. I know we are all waiting patiently but like many of you here our patience is running out. It is like our lives are put on hold for 2+ years not being able to move on. Do I put my kids through secondary school here or start applying in Canada? What about our place, continue to rent or buy one in Canada? There are no updates, estimates or timeline given to us. We cannot keep on waiting indefinitely and stop making other major life decisions. We have become deeply frustrated. Where do we go from here? Any pointers or opinion would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[CNP]

Hello all, since this is my first post on this forum I hope I am doing it correctly and not violating any forum regulations.

We submitted an express entry application in June 2021 (AOR). We are PNP outland applicants. At the time we followed the advice on this page in not doing an upfront medical exam. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/documents/medical-exams.html

To this date, the medical still shows ‘you do not need to do a medical exam’. And so far the only update we have got was a biometrics invite in Nov21 and now it is showing as confirmed on the account. But since then it was all dead silence.

I follow this forum and immitracker routinely and find out many in fact most people actually just went and did their medical exams when they submitted their EE application (like before covid) (i.e. not following the webpage I quoted above). Many of these applicants have got MEP confirmed, and those expired have had extension or re-medical requests. And some of these people (some even with AOR later than ours) have got even their PPR after.

Here are my questions:
1. Were we right in not doing a medical exam with our initial submission? Or were we interpreting the webpage wrongly?
2. Would not having that medical exam done put us in the ‘slow queue’, as our application is about as raw as one can be and the officers may just skip on to a more completed case file to work on?
3. Has anybody like us (who did not undertake an upfront medical exam) managed to receive a medical invite out of the blue, that asked them to go and do their exam?
4. As for the vast majority of applicants who went and did the exam beforehand, what would be the logic behind? Knowing that the application likely would not close within a year, that they would have to re-do or ask for extension?
5. Would it be of any use, if we book a medical exam today, ‘forcing’ them to somehow update our case?
6. Is there any other thing we can do?

I am sorry if some of my doubts may seem a little dumb. I know we are all waiting patiently but like many of you here our patience is running out. It is like our lives are put on hold for 2+ years not being able to move on. Do I put my kids through secondary school here or start applying in Canada? What about our place, continue to rent or buy one in Canada? There are no updates, estimates or timeline given to us. We cannot keep on waiting indefinitely and stop making other major life decisions. We have become deeply frustrated. Where do we go from here? Any pointers or opinion would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Sorry, do you mean you did not undergo medical tests even once ?

 

[Considerate Tiger]

Sorry, do you mean you did not undergo medical tests even once ?

Correct. As per this:

If you and your dependants are outside of Canada
Don’t get your medical exam as soon as you get your invitation to apply.

We will send you a form telling you when and how to get a medical exam.

When you apply online, you must submit a letter of explanation in your document checklist instead of your immigration medical exam (IME). In the letter, you must indicate that the primary applicant or the accompanying dependants of the primary applicant are outside Canada.

Except ‘the form’ never came. Did we misunderstand something?

 

[CNP]

Correct. As per this:

If you and your dependants are outside of Canada
Don’t get your medical exam as soon as you get your invitation to apply.

We will send you a form telling you when and how to get a medical exam.

When you apply online, you must submit a letter of explanation in your document checklist instead of your immigration medical exam (IME). In the letter, you must indicate that the primary applicant or the accompanying dependants of the primary applicant are outside Canada.

Except ‘the form’ never came. Did we misunderstand something?

When you submit your application, it does ask for proof of medical exam you would have undergone. I am still confused, when you submitted IELTS, PoF, Reference letters etc .. did you not upload proof of medicals ?

 

[Considerate Tiger]

When you submit your application, it does ask for proof of medical exam you would have undergone. I am still confused, when you submitted IELTS, PoF, Reference letters etc .. did you not upload proof of medicals ?

Thanks for your replies! Yes we submitted everything else in the checklist except for the IME result, which we used an LOE. And that was as per the official IRCC website I quoted in my first post,

that says:

When you apply online, you must submit a letter of explanation in your document checklist instead of your immigration medical exam (IME). In the letter, you must indicate that the primary applicant or the accompanying dependants of the primary applicant are outside Canada.

It actually makes sense, considering the huge amount of backlog applications IRCC has to work on. Why ask people to do an IME that expires in a year, when they know they cannot close a case within a year? So the question is, how do you all interpret this message? And why do people just do their IME still anyway?

 

[CNP]

Thanks for your replies! Yes we submitted everything else in the checklist except for the IME result, which we used an LOE. And that was as per the official IRCC website I quoted in my first post,

that says:

When you apply online, you must submit a letter of explanation in your document checklist instead of your immigration medical exam (IME). In the letter, you must indicate that the primary applicant or the accompanying dependants of the primary applicant are outside Canada.

It actually makes sense, considering the huge amount of backlog applications IRCC has to work on. Why ask people to do an IME that expires in a year, when they know they cannot close a case within a year? So the question is, how do you all interpret this message? And why do people just do their IME still anyway?

I am not sure of latest guidelines, however the process has been to undergo medicals post ITA and before you submit application. Hospitals do consider ITA as a "proof" from IRCC to conduct the exam. Post which they hand over IME sheet to you which needs to be submitted alongnwith application. Suggest you put your situation in some 2021 AOR threads on this forum. Best luck !

 

[Considerate Tiger]

I am not sure of latest guidelines, however the process has been to undergo medicals post ITA and before you submit application. Hospitals do consider ITA as a "proof" from IRCC to conduct the exam. Post which they hand over IME sheet to you which needs to be submitted alongnwith application. Suggest you put your situation in some 2021 AOR threads on this forum. Best luck !

Appreciate your response. Thanks.

 

[Preston_Cleric]

Appreciate your response. Thanks.

Hello,
Have you received any update about your situation?

I'm currently in the same situation as you and have used an LOE for the medical exam as per the IRCC webpage that you have attached in the thread above.

Thank you!

 

[ViannaLin]

Hi,

I am in the same situation as you, received AOR in June 2022 and my inbox has been quiet since instruction for Bio collection.
I reckon it would be helpful to share that the policy was updated on 7th July 2022 to obligate the upfront medical exam before submitting application.

I assume since we submitted our application before this policy change, we should be receiving the instructions from IRCC to proceed IME.
Also because it is difficult for me to estimate how long it will take for IRCC to proceed all the process that the exam record may expire.

Still, I am planning to search more on this platform, and to call the approved panel physicians to see how long I need to wait to reserve the examination (in case we will receive the instructions and IRCC requires the exam to be done within 30 days since the instruction is received).

 

[ViannaLin]

A quick update:
I have received the instructions from IRCC this morning. So the assumption is true that you can wait until IRCC notifies you.
Hope this helps.

Good luck!