Upfront medical exam — your IME before you apply
An upfront medical exam is an immigration medical exam (IME) you complete with an IRCC-approved panel physician before you submit your application. You leave the same day with printed proof of the examination — the Information Sheet carrying your IME number — and we send your results to IRCC electronically.
The same exam, done first
An upfront medical exam is not a different examination. It is the same immigration medical exam a panel physician performs when IRCC asks for one — a physical examination, with blood work and a chest X-ray depending on your age — completed before your application rather than after it.
You do not need an IRCC letter or an instruction to book one with us. You bring the same government photo identification you would bring to any immigration medical exam, and you leave with proof that the exam was done.
Whether your application type accepts an exam completed in advance, and how long results remain valid, are IRCC’s rules, not ours. Check them before you book: IRCC: medical exams for applicants
- Book, or walk in. Appointments are available at both Toronto clinics, and walk-in medicals are available during clinic hours. Bring government photo identification, glasses or contact lenses if you wear them, and a list of your current medications.
- Everything in one visit. The physical examination, the blood work and the chest X-ray all happen inside the clinic, in the same appointment. There is no requisition to carry to an outside laboratory and no second trip across town.
- We transmit the results. Your panel physician sends the completed exam to IRCC electronically, within 10 calendar days of the examination. You keep the Information Sheet you were given at the visit.
Proof of your exam, the same day
You do not wait for paperwork. At the end of the visit — the day of the exam — you are handed the Information Sheet printed for your file. It carries your IME number, the identifier IRCC uses to match the exam to your application, so you can include that number with your application straight away and keep the sheet with your documents. The results themselves follow electronically from us to IRCC.
What it costs
The fee depends on your age, because age decides which tests the exam includes. The doctor’s fee and each required test are listed separately, so you can see exactly what applies to you. The chest X-ray is billed by the imaging provider inside the building.
See the fees by ageBook your upfront medical exam
Both clinics sit at TTC subway stations — Broadview Station on Line 2, and Bay and Carlton by College and Queen’s Park stations on Line 1. Same-day and next-day appointments are often available.
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The exam, bloodwork and chest X-ray happen on-site, in one visit.
Upfront medical exam for permanent residence
Most of the applicants who ask us for an exam before applying are preparing a permanent residence application — Express Entry, a provincial nomination, or a family sponsorship. The examination itself does not change with the application type: the same physical examination, the same age-based tests, the same transmission to IRCC.
What does change is the paperwork you are holding when you arrive. Some applicants have an IRCC letter with an IME number already on it; others have nothing yet because they have not applied. Either is fine — the physician records the exam against your identity documents, and the Information Sheet you leave with carries the number your application needs.
- Physical examination with an IRCC-approved panel physician
- Blood work and chest X-ray on site, as your age requires
- Urinalysis where the exam calls for it
- Information Sheet with your IME number, given to you at the visit
- Results sent to IRCC electronically within 10 calendar days
Booking an upfront medical exam in Toronto
Our two clinics are built around the subway, because applicants travel to us from across the Greater Toronto Area. The Riverdale clinic is beside Broadview Station on Line 2; the downtown clinic at Bay and Carlton is a short walk from College and Queen’s Park stations on Line 1, with the 506 Carlton streetcar at the door.
Families can be examined together in the same visit, including infants and children, and staff can answer questions about what the appointment involves before you book. If you would rather not book ahead, walk-in medicals are available during clinic hours.
After the exam
Once the exam is complete and your results are back, the panel physician reviews them and submits the file to IRCC. If something in the exam calls for an additional test or a specialist opinion, we tell you at the visit and arrange the follow-up before the file is sent.
From that point the file belongs to IRCC. Questions about your application — what the exam means for it, or how long a decision takes — go to IRCC rather than to the clinic; the Information Sheet you were given identifies the exam in any correspondence.