As discussed in our other blogs, the Immigration Medical Exam is a process that begins with selecting a Panel Physician to conduct your medical exam. The IRCC has appointed and approved specific number of physicians into Panel Physician roles, to conduct medicals exams on behalf of the IRCC for various applications including but not limited to the refugee, work permit, immigration, parents’ visa extension, etc. In another blog, we discussed some of the criteria to consider for selecting a panel physician. Please refer to “How to Choose a Panel Physician for my Immigration Medical Exam”. During your medical appointment, number of physical characteristics will be collected including height, weight, and blood pressure, and number of tests will be taken including vision, blood, urine and x-ray. The results of these tests get attached to the Immigration Medical Exams. The Panel Physician will then carefully review these results for any abnormality, where the results are outside of normal range. If a Panel Physician identifies such abnormalities, he or she will usually call the respective client to discuss specific situations. This process is known as a Recall. There are at least two reasons to Recall a client. First and the obvious reason is to inform the client that an abnormality has been identified in their medical case. Secondly, Panel Physician would ask respective clients to take this opportunity to follow up such abnormality with their family physician. Typical abnormalities that maybe recalled by your panel physician may include chest x-ray and blood work abnormalities among others. 

On the other hand, if after completing their medical exams, clients receive any letter from IRCC requesting for further tests or information, then this process is called “Furtherance”. In this case, only clients receive letters from the IRCC and the respective panel physician doesn’t receive such a furtherance letter. It is the client’s full responsibility to contact a panel physician who could be the same panel physician who assessed their initial medical exam, or another panel physician who is willing to follow up on the furtherance letter. Again, please note that you don’t have to do furtherance with the same panel physician but it is preferred to do it with the same panel physician as they are familiar with your immigration medical case. If you have done your initial immigration medical exam in a province or country and you have since moved to another province or country, then you can contact a local panel physician in the new province or country that you moved to and ask them to help you with your furtherance. 

Please note that panel physicians charge a fee for furtherance process as additional time and follow up work is required on their side. Couple of the common furtherance tests that the IRCC may ask for include repeat of chest x-ray, Sputum test, additional blood work, or obtaining of a specialist report. Once the furtherance test results are collected and sent to the IRCC, the IRCC officer will review the results and maybe satisfied with the results or the officer may ask for further tests, in which case you will receive another letter from the IRCC for further tests. A panel physician with lot of experience in immigration medical exams and furtherance process will be able to guide you throughout this process. 

At Immigration Medical Centre, our panel physician has extensive experience with immigration medical exams, as well as recalls and furtherance(s), and processes each and every case thoroughly and carefully. If you need more information regarding your medical exam, recall and furtherance process, out team of experienced and dedicated panel physician and staff will be happy to assist you. Please check our website and once ready, book your appointment online at: https://immigrationmedicalcentre.ca/