The Western Alliance for Assessment of International Physicians is now accepting applicants to receive a 'prior assessment' of skills and experience and for some IMGs could lead to licensure instead of repeating residency training. You can now download the application form from the website. 

WAAIP is a two phased clinical evaluation will be conducted for IMG Registrants in the disciplines of Family Medicine, General Surgery and General Internal Medicine.

The first phase of the evaluation will be structured assessment (Multiple Choice Questions and OSCE examination) held November 25 and 26, 2005 in Calgary, Alberta.

A maximum of 25 Registrants will be selected to complete a second phase consisting of an eleven-week Clinical Field Assessment in various locales / sites in Western Canada between January and March 2006.

Deadline to Apply to WAAIP:

Complete application package must be received in WAAIP office by Sunday Friday, October 26, 2005, 1600 hours.

Step A (held in Calgary, Alberta)

• MCQ written examination: Friday, November 25, 2005
• OSCE: Saturday, November 26, 2005

It seems that each of the Western provinces and territories participating in this WAAIP have 10 spots they can fill. It may be easier for you to get a position in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. The catch is that part of the application is to have a health authority agree to offer you employment subject to assessment. This means that you would be signing a return of service type contract, especially if you convinced an authority in Saskatchewan offer a job suject to successful assessment. In BC the better authorities would be the Northern, Interior and Vancouver Island, as they are having the most diffeculty attracting doctors.

You will need to contact those in a position within a health authority to make a decision to offer you a position subject to assessment. They may not know about this program so you will need to be persistant.