Ontario’s new residency policy leaving some internationally trained doctors in limbo – CBC
Residents must have attended high school in Ontario for at least 2 years, ministry says
Oct 22, 2025
After calling Ottawa home for the past seven years, Mohamed Alhassoun never expected the location of his high school to become the determining factor in his eligibility to apply to become a physician.
Alhassoun moved to Canada from Saudi Arabia in 2018, and is now a permanent resident who recently passed his Canadian medical board exams.
The next step is to apply for his residency through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS), a national agency tasked with pairing doctors to residency programs. However, a new provincial policy disqualifies Alhassoun from the first of two rounds.
“Starting this year, to be eligible for Ontario International Medical Graduate (IMGs) positions in the first CaRMS match, international medical graduates must have attended an accredited Ontario high school for two or more years,” a spokesperson for the Minister of Health told CBC in a statement.
