I'm a physician in Canada. Can I practise medicine in Israel with my Canadian degree?

Canadian physicians planning aliyah usually ask whether their licence will be "recognised", and the honest answer is that Israel does not recognise foreign licences at all. It issues its own, on its own conditions, and one of those conditions has nothing to do with medicine: you have to be an Israeli citizen or a permanent resident before the licence can be granted. That single line reorders the whole project, because the work you can do from Toronto is preparation, not qualification.

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Detailed Answer

Section 4(a) of the Physicians Ordinance [New Version] 5737-1976 sets five conditions for a licence to practise medicine. The applicant must be a person of good character, must hold recognised medical education, must pass the examinations set by the Director-General of the Ministry of Health unless exempted, must be an Israeli citizen or hold a permanent residence permit, and must have basic knowledge of Hebrew. Section 4(b) defines recognised education as a degree from an Israeli medical school recognised by the Council for Higher Education, or a diploma from a foreign university recognised by the Director-General, in which case an internship meeting the Ministry's requirements is also needed. The Ministry publishes its accreditation lists for international medical, dental and pharmacology programmes, and a degree from a programme that is not on them will not open a licence file at all, which is a live issue for anyone who studied at a satellite campus or in a country whose recognition status changed after they graduated. The examination itself is run twice a year, in a summer or autumn sitting and a winter or spring sitting, is computerised, and consists of two sections of 110 multiple-choice questions with two and a half hours for each section and a break between them. The pass mark is 60%. Registration closes roughly two months before the sitting. Physicians who trained and completed a recognised internship in a small group of countries, Canada among them, can be exempt from the examination, but the exemption is decided by the Medical Professions Licensing Division on the individual file rather than by nationality, and it usually turns on which national licensing examinations you actually hold. A doctor who finished medical school without a recognised internship faces a mandatory one-year stáz in Israel before any residency, and entry to a stáz place itself depends on the relevant examination.

For a physician still living in Canada the sequence matters more than the paperwork. The licence cannot issue before status does, so the realistic order is to open the file and clear the academic and accreditation questions from abroad, then time the examination or the exemption decision against the aliyah date, then apply for the licence once the teudat zehut exists. Physicians who are not making aliyah, including those coming for a defined hospital post or a research fellowship, take a different route entirely: Section 19 lets the Director-General issue a temporary permit for up to one year, renewable at his discretion, and in practice that permit is tied to a named institution and supervised work rather than to independent practice. On documents, the Ministry works from originals, so the degree, the transcript, the internship certificate and a certificate of good standing from the Canadian regulator all need apostilles from the relevant provincial or federal competent authority, Canada having joined the Hague Convention on 11 January 2024, and anything not in Hebrew or English needs an Israeli notary's certified translation. None of this is the same exercise as academic equivalence for salary grading, which is a separate decision by a separate body and is set out in our answer on whether Israel recognises a foreign university degree.

In Practice: Section 4(a) of the Physicians Ordinance [New Version] 5737-1976 conditions the licence on Israeli citizenship or permanent residence, recognised education, basic Hebrew and the examination set by the Director-General of the Ministry of Health, with Section 19 providing only a temporary permit of up to one year for everyone else. The licensing examination runs twice a year, in two sections of 110 questions each, with a 60% pass mark and registration closing about two months ahead, and a missing internship adds a mandatory one-year stáz. Budget for the document set as well: a notarial translation costs NIS 251 for the first 100 words and NIS 197 per additional 100, with a Magistrates' Court apostille at NIS 59 per notarised signature.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• Your medical school or its campus is not on the Ministry's accreditation list. That is a threshold question, not a paperwork question, and it decides whether the file can be opened at all rather than how long it takes.
• You are coming for a defined hospital or research post without making aliyah. The Section 19 permit is institution-bound and sits alongside a work visa application, and accepting the post before either is settled leaves you unable to start.
• Your aliyah date and your examination sitting are more than a few months apart. A licence application cannot be granted before status exists, and a sitting missed by a fortnight costs half a year.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We check accreditation status before you commit to the move, put the licence file and the exemption request in front of the Licensing Division in the right order, and handle the temporary permit route where aliyah is not on the table.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.