Which Canadian medical schools accept international applicants?

MD schools set rules for your legal status. Here, an international applicant needs a study permit. They don't meet the school's domestic or protected-person rules. PR means permanent resident of Canada. A Canadian citizen or PR who earned a degree abroad may meet a domestic rule. They still need to meet the school's rules for foreign records and degrees. Check recognized refugee status with each school on its own.

Note your current status and when each school needs proof. A plan to apply for PR status is not the same as having it. The school decides which group you can apply in. If your records are unusual, ask its MD office which rule applies before you pay. A general university page for foreign students does not replace the MD school's own rule.

The AFMC 2027 guide puts the schools in one official source. Some school entries keep old notes or special terms. Read each entry beside the school's current rules. A school entry doesn't tell you your odds of an offer, and it can't change your legal status.

McGill's own page expects one international place for Fall 2027. You must meet its degree and science rules. Its language and assessment rules also apply. The MD form is due November 1, 2026. Both the place count and date name this entry year. McGill's general summary says up to two available places. That upper limit and the dated anticipated count use different wording. Ask admissions to confirm the allocation before treating two as available for Fall 2027.

This route is not Med-P. The usual McGill MDCM route comes after a bachelor's degree. The Quebec CEGEP route has a qualifying year first. It has its own rules for where you live and the DEC you hold. Read the McGill MDCM and Med-P guide for the required courses and earlier Casper dates. The lack of an MCAT rule does not remove other test or language rules.

For a Grade 12 family, the next choice is often a first degree. A place in McGill Arts or Science does not set aside an MD place for later. Look at that degree's courses and cost on their own. Choose a degree you would want to study even if you never get an MD offer.

Laval has an international study-permit route. Its current page says the faculty may admit one person. The MD calendar names the 2027 cycle, but that capacity sentence doesn't name a year. Your home country must recognize a medical degree earned in Quebec. For Fall 2027, university applicants need at least 60 credits in one program by the end of summer 2026. Autumn 2026 credits don't count. Check the route's own rules for your past schooling and how it selects people. McGill's degree rule does not apply to every Quebec MD school. A high school diploma earned abroad is not always equal to a Quebec DEC.

Montreal's medical faculty FAQ says two international places are shared across the preparatory-year and MD routes each year. That sentence doesn't name 2027, and the program admission page still labels its regular cohort 2026. The international category is real; its exact Fall 2027 allocation is not published yet. Treat the two places as the current published reference, not a new-cycle guarantee. You need a diploma Montreal accepts as equal to a Quebec DEC or a university degree. Its medicine FAQ says an Ontario high school diploma plus extra university study does not meet its diploma rule. Those applicants need a completed bachelor's degree. If you have started university by the application deadline, you normally need to finish a university degree by August 15 before entry. Montreal's prerequisites-only Compléments de formation program is the stated exception.

Sherbrooke has posted who can apply to its Fall 2027 international route. Its updated quota is not published yet. The AFMC entry's one-place figure carries an update warning, so it should not be presented as a confirmed 2027 count. Your home country must also recognize Sherbrooke's MD. You need a DEC, a health sciences diploma called a DSS, or a recognized equivalent completed before classes. Without one, you need at least 90 credits in one undergraduate program by the application deadline, or you must be on track to finish a university bachelor's degree before classes. Unless you are exempt, Sherbrooke requires proof of French by August 15 before entry. Your average across the four tested skills must reach C1. Its Casper test must also be in French. At all three schools, check French skills and how your past study is assessed. Teaching in French does not mean they use the same entry rules.

The 2027 AFMC guide and current school rules set domestic-status rules for Ontario's seven MD schools. Old online lists may call Toronto, McMaster or Queen's open to study-permit holders. Those lists are not a sound plan for this cycle. Check the MD school's rule now. A university may enrol foreign students in other degrees while keeping its MD route closed to that same group.

Some official publications also keep older text. AFMC's McMaster entry still has a visa-student sentence while its own footnote says non-Canadian admission is not permitted from 2026. Toronto's entry still contains a foreign above-quota fee beside an exclusion note. Those lines don't establish an available place. The current citizenship rule is what matters before you consider a fee.

Toronto's MD-PhD page also expressly excludes international applicants. A different legal definition or a general graduate-funding page does not create an exception to that school policy. Ottawa has narrow alumni-child wording and a separate government-contract note. Neither is published as an open Fall 2027 route. They are narrow exceptions, so Ottawa is not on the independent international shortlist.

A protected person may be assessed outside the usual study-permit group. Queen's and TMU name approved protected persons in their full rules. Check McMaster's full status and proof rule in the current OMSAS overview. Ottawa names approved Convention refugees. Calgary also accepts applicants with refugee status in Canada. Each school sets its own proof and date rules. A claim that is still being reviewed is not approved protected status.

UBC lets you apply with refugee status. It needs proof of PR status two weeks before classes start. UBC may offer a one-year deferral at its discretion. It isn't guaranteed. At SFU, you must have citizenship or PR status when you apply. In Quebec, Laval excludes protected persons from its international category. Montreal treats refugee applicants as regular-category applicants when they prove Quebec residence by the application deadline. Read the school's status and provincial residence rules together.

The brief OMSAS summary lists citizens and PRs for Queen's. The school's own full page also names approved protected persons. The full page is the one to follow. A short summary at another school may leave out detail too. Don't assume it settles every possible status case. Ask that school to resolve a case that is unclear before you apply, using the records you can provide by its required date.

You can earn a Canadian bachelor's degree and still be a foreign citizen on a study permit. The degree may meet a school's study rule. It does not give you citizenship or PR status. Check your degree and legal status on their own. Four years of study does not itself change your status. Don't build an MD school list on the hope that the degree will do both jobs.

The reverse case matters too. A citizen or PR who studied abroad may be able to apply. They may then need their degree assessed or their records translated. Toronto and Ottawa post rules for foreign records. SFU also names eligible citizens and PRs with degrees earned abroad. A page that tells you how to use WES or another degree-checking service is not proof of an open route for study-permit holders.

Some MD documents list places funded under deals with foreign governments or institutions. The school and sponsor agree on those places. The deal sets the funding and any terms about going home. A tuition line in an old table does not create one of these sponsored places for you.

Calgary distinguishes formal agreements from individual international applications. AFMC's Ottawa entry still has a Kuwait-contract note. Neither creates an open Fall 2027 route for an unsponsored study-permit holder. Active sponsors, seat counts and current agreement processes are not published. If you have an official agreement, use its named institutional or government contacts to check the terms.

UPEI's MD campus is part of Memorial's regional program. Its focus is on people who meet the PEI residence rules. It is not a second route for foreign students beside Memorial. You still need to check Memorial's citizenship rule. Read the campus and home-province rules together. A new campus name should not become an extra choice on your list when it does not have a separate route for you.

SFU has its own new MD school rules. These include the need for citizenship or PR status. York's planned MD school start is 2028, subject to accreditation. It is not a school taking a Fall 2027 group. Check a future school's own rules once they are posted. You also need its own calendar before you can treat a planned school as a place to apply.

Once you know you can apply based on status, check your past study. Then check the language and test rules. An open route may still need a specific diploma or degree. It may need some university study first. Save the current MD page with your plan and note its cycle. A general university offer for foreign students does not show that its MD course accepts the same group.

Exact Fall 2027 fees, sponsor availability and future postgraduate training outcomes are not published. Laval's, Montreal's and Sherbrooke's Fall 2027 quotas are not published yet either. Manitoba's dedicated bulletin still has older entry dates even though the 2027 AFMC guide supports its general domestic rule. Check each school's current page again before you pay an application fee. Use the pre-med overview for the broader education sequence.

These Ontario policies set who may apply. Visas, licensing and residency training are separate decisions, made by other official bodies.