Canada affirms foreign credential recognition target for 2026-27

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) says its Foreign Credential Recognition (FCR) Program will maintain 58 agreements to help roughly 32,000 internationally trained professionals (ITPs) this year.

These measures are particularly important for newcomers to Canada.

The federal government’s FCR program is one of the main ways Ottawa supports and helps integrate internationally trained workers trying to enter the Canadian labour market in their field.

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Scale and details revealed

Many of the FCR initiatives detailed in ESDC’s latest departmental plan are not new. This year, there will be 58 existing agreements to support approximately 32,000 ITPs throughout the duration of the initiatives, primarily in the health and construction sectors, alongside other agreements supported by planned “system improvements”.

In the context of the FCR program, “agreements” refers to funding agreements between the federal government and partner organizations—such as provinces and territories, regulatory bodies, national associations, credential assessment agencies, and other eligible organizations.

These partner organizations run projects to help ITPs enter the Canadian labour market. A larger number of agreements, therefore, helps accommodate more ITPs to begin work in Canada.

More specifically, these organizations deliver services to newcomers such as faster credential-recognition processes, FCR loans* navigation supports, and employment assistance tied to Canadian work experience.

*A Foreign Credential Recognition (FCR) loan is a kind of loan available through participating service providers to help internationally trained professionals cover the costs of getting their credentials recognized in Canada.

According to the federal government, these loans range from $15,000 to $30,000 and can be used for expenses such as licensing and qualifying exam fees, additional education or training, tuition, and other related costs. The government also says these loans are offered alongside support services such as career counselling, mentorship, job-readiness workshops, and job-search assistance

Ottawa is also moving ahead with its new Action Fund

The other major foreign credential measure in ESDC’s 2026-27 plan is the Foreign Credential Recognition Action Fund.

The departmental plan formally commits the federal government to provide $97 million CAD over five years, starting in 2026-27.

The purpose of this fund is to give ESDC dedicated funding to work with provinces and territories to improve the formal process of how FCR is done in Canada. The fund will be directed towards improving the “fairness, transparency, timeliness, and consistency of foreign credential recognition”—again with a focus on health and construction.

That measure was first announced earlier in Budget 2025, which said the Action Fund had been announced on October 27, 2025, and would be financed from existing departmental resources.

Other planned credential initiatives

Beyond the new FCR program targets and the planned Action Fund, the federal government has also said it will continue working on addressing broader barriers that prevent internationally educated professionals from entering regulated occupations in Canada.

In its 2026-27 Departmental Plan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says it will collaborate with ESDC and provincial and territorial partners to remove barriers for internationally educated professionals in regulated occupations, and to make it easier for newcomers to work in in-demand fields.

Separately, IRCC has said a federal-provincial-territorial action plan aimed at reducing foreign credential recognition barriers for newcomers is currently being developed through the Foreign Credential Recognition Action Group.

Foreign credential recognition in Canada is not handled by the federal government alone. Provinces, territories, regulators, and professional bodies often control licensing rules, especially in regulated professions and trades.

The federal role is to coordinate with those partners, provide support, and help make the system more consistent and easier to navigate. That is why federal planning documents are increasingly focusing not just on project funding, but also on reducing barriers across the system.

Existing FCR supports

IRCC’s pre-arrival services currently include help with job search preparation and foreign credential recognition, giving eligible permanent residents access to guidance before they arrive in Canada. This allows some newcomers to begin preparing for licensing, employment, and settlement before entering the Canadian labour market.

FCR loans (as explained above) are also currently in place and are a commonly used part of the current credential recognition program.

In addition, Canada’s online Foreign Credential Recognition Tool helps users check whether their occupation is regulated in a specific province or territory and identify the regulator for their field

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