jmtormey

Hi there,

In the process of filling in forms for the federal skilled workers permanent residency visa application.

I have a medical degree (MB BCh BAO), and went to medical school for a 6 year degree. I have also done my postgraduate exams in Surgery and Radiology (FRCS and FRCR).

Question 13 on the application form says what is your highest level of education completed. The options are:
- Bachelors degree
- Masters degree
- PHD

What is the medical degree equivalent to? Bachelors or Masters? I have no idea...

Thanks for your help!

julievonz

Its your highest academic, not highest professional qualification so from what I can tell, its a Bachelors.

christmasoompa

You've said it yourself - you did a 6 year degree. It's not 'equivalent to' anything else, it is a degree so that's what you'd need to put.

Unless you actually did a masters as well of course, but you haven't mentioned that.

And if you can get your application in asap then best to do so in case your occupation is removed from the list at the end of the month.

Good luck.

Jo&Alex

It's actually neither of those.... Here in Canada a Medical Doctor is always a DOCTOR, in academic settings it is equal in ranks to a Philosophy Doctor. If there is no "OTHER: SPECIFY" option, I would tick PhD.

Are you being sponsored by a hospital? Usually they have people available to help you out with all the paperwork, as the immigration stuff is easy compared to the provincial licensing process...

Jo&Alex

This is a website that we found too late, we had already done everything ourselves... But we have met a couple of surgeons from the UK that used it and seemed happy with the service, and happy to have immigrated to BC.

http://www.healthmatchbc.org/Physici...ecialists.aspx

jmtormey

Thanks JO&Alex,

I thought about ticking the PHD box, but then thought the visa office might send it back to me if they decided it was wrong. Maybe I will tick both Bachelors and PHD and add a side note, and hope they don't get upset with that.

Yes, healthmatchbc seems really good service alright. I met them when they were over in europe in february.

We are just doing this visa application on our own for now as we have 2 years before we plan to come over, and when we do first come over it will be for a 2 year fellowship through one of the universities ( and I won't need the Canada licence at that stage)...
So we won't actually be using healthmatch for 4 years time.

Thought we may as well just get the visa sorted, and have plenty of time for it, then will think about the whole medical licensing nightmare closer to the time...

Which exams did you have to do to get licensed?

Thanks

Jo&Alex

So we did exactly what you are planning to do. At the end it worked out perfect, but it took a lot of stress, sleepless nights, exams and moving around the continent. It took us years to finally be able to practice. This was a few years back though, and I hear things are getting easier now...

Then we met some people that had used the BC health match, and they were practicing in Canada within months of starting the process. They were given years to complete the RCPSC exams while working on some sort of special license, they had assistance with the immigration process (and they were coming sponsored!), all the perks. It just sounded like they had it so easy! Seems like we took the long route. I think if we were starting over we would try the health match first... I just checked and they seem to have lots of permanent jobs for radiologists in nice areas!

christmasoompa

But he hasn't actually got a PhD? If CIC see his degree transcript and cert, then they'll only give him points for a degree, regardless of how long it took him to do etc. For example, a standard degree in the US is 4 years, but in the UK it's 3 years - either way though, it's still a degree in CIC's eyes and the extra year of study won't count for anything.

I'm not disagreeing that a medical degree is worth more than a 'normal' one, but if he ticks PhD without actually having one, CIC may think he's trying to pull a fast one!

Jo&Alex

Back in our days the last option was simply "Post-graduate degree". Which worked better for situations like this one. Somebody was trying to obtain more specific information for some reason, but actually managed to leave no room to claim years of post-graduate education while pursuing specialization rather than a PhD degree...

I honestly don't know how much of a difference the answer to this question would make in terms of CIC processing your application in one way or another... But if there is room to clarify this I most certainly would. I'm thinking they will have to review your certificates anyway if you want to immigrate as a specialist, so they will realize what your qualifications are, regardless of what option you choose.

christmasoompa

As you say, CIC will review certificates (for anybody applying as a FSW, not just those wanting to 'immigrate as a specialist' - all applicants have to provide educational certificates). So as you say, they'll realise what any applicant's highest qualification is anyway when they see that, which is why I don't think it's a good idea to tick the PhD box. They'll look at the degree cert, and the ticked box, and wonder why the two don't match up.

The points are given for the highest educational credential received, so for the OP it would be a degree, and it doesn't matter what they've done as post-graduate studies - unless it was actually a masters or PhD, as those are the only two things that CIC deem worthy of extra points.