If your job is regulated or a compulsory trade, the province or territory decides whether your training is equivalent. Canada publishes the process, the lookup tool, and loans of up to $30,000 for the fees.
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This is the page to open if you were an engineer, nurse, teacher, electrician, or accountant before you moved. Do it before you arrive if you can. ESDC is blunt that the process takes time and costs money, and that an early call to the regulator is the actual first step.
The loan is not a grant. It is a loan, up to the $30,000 ESDC states, for costs such as exams and courses. Settlement agencies can help you sort the paperwork. They cannot waive the regulator's requirements. While you wait, Job Bank can show related jobs that do not need the licence yet.
Internationally trained people aiming at a regulated occupation or compulsory trade. The loan program has its own application rules on the ESDC page. Read those before you count on the money.
Use the Foreign Credential Recognition Tool, contact the regulator it names, and read the loans section on the same ESDC page if exam fees are the barrier.
CICIC explains who is allowed to recognize your studies or your occupation, and points to its directory of occupational profiles by province and territory.
Last checked October 19, 2026
IRCC's help centre says an Educational Credential Assessment done for immigration does not license you to practise a regulated profession in Canada.
Last checked October 19, 2026
A Job Bank search that tells you whether your occupation is regulated in a province or territory, who to contact, and what else you could do while you wait.
Last checked October 19, 2026