Vascular Surgery: the Practice Eligibility Route
Requirements as published by the Royal College. Last reviewed August 2026.
Vascular Surgery at a glance
- Required time in training
- 5 years (surgical specialty: Surgical Foundations required)STR: Pathway 1 (Direct Entry): Five (5) years of approved residency training, incorporating increasing graded responsibility. Pathway 2 (Subsequent Entry): Two (2) years of approved residency training in Vascular Surgery, after successful completion of Royal College accredited training in General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, or Thoracic Surgery
- 2026 exam timing
- Written in the Fall; Applied in the Fall (same year)
- Apply for assessment of training
- by August 31 of the year before your exam
- Register for the exam
- February 1 – April 15 of the exam year
- Exam attempts
- Maximum 4 attempts per component within a 5-year eligibility period
The Royal College reads your postgraduate training and practice record in Vascular Surgery against the published Specialty Training Requirements. Those requirements are set out in full below, so you can see how your own training compares before you apply.
What licence can I get, and when?
Certification is national. Licensure is provincial. You do not need Royal College certification (FRCPC) to be licensed. Several provinces license you at an earlier PER stage, and the earliest any province accepts is the eligibility letter alone. The table applies to every specialty that reached exam eligibility through the PER.
Full province table: MCCQE, job offer and licence type
| Province | MCCQE | RC written | RC applied | Licence issued | Job offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | Required | Required | Required | Full | Not required |
| British Columbia | Not required | Required | Required | Provisional | Required |
| Saskatchewan | Required | Required | Required | Provisional | Required |
| Manitoba | Not required | Required | Required | Provisional | Required |
| Ontario | Not required | Required | Not required | Provisional, 3 years | Required |
| Nova Scotia (a) | Not required | Not required | Not required | Defined, 6 to 24 months | Required |
| Nova Scotia (b) | Not required | Required | Required | Full | Required |
| New Brunswick | Not required | Not required | Not required | Special, then Defined | Required |
| Newfoundland & Labrador, PEI | Required* | Not required | Not required | Provisional | Required |
* The MCCQE may be waived where the candidate has five or more years of independent practice abroad. Case by case, never guaranteed.
Educational only. Rules change, and each regulator decides on factors that may not be listed here; Filipe Santos MD does not make licensure decisions. Checked October 9, 2026 against each regulator's pages; Ontario confirmed with the CPSO in October 2026. Confirm with the regulator before you act.
Province notes (Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the MCCQE) are in the PER guide.
How training is structured
The Royal College sets out the training for Vascular Surgery in the blocks below. An internationally trained specialist is assessed on whether their own training and practice record is comparable in structure and content.
Requirements document: 2014, Version 3.0; applies to those who begin training on or after July 1st, 2014 (Revised - Specialty Standards Review Committee - December 2008, January 2011, October 2013)
Required experiences8
Specific experiences the Royal College names for this discipline.
- Pathway 1 - 1.1 A minimum of two (2) blocks of critical care
- Pathway 1 - 1.2 A minimum of one (1) block that provides initial trauma management (e.g. Emergency Medicine, General Surgery, trauma team, Orthopedic Surgery or Plastic Surgery)
- Pathway 1 - 1.3 A minimum of four (4) blocks and a maximum of nine (9) blocks of Vascular Surgery
- Pathway 1 - 1.4 A minimum of one (1) block General Surgery
- Pathway 1 - 1.5 A minimum of one (1) block Internal Medicine or one of its subspecialties
- Pathway 1 - 2.1 Twenty six (26) blocks of Vascular Surgery, sixteen (16) blocks of which must be at a senior resident level
- Pathway 2 - 1. Sixteen (16) blocks of senior residency in Vascular Surgery; cannot be double-counted with the entry specialty/subspecialty
- Pathway 2 - 2. Ten (10) blocks of training completed at the level of a senior Vascular Surgery resident, selected from sections 2.1 to 2.8; cannot be double-counted with the entry specialty/subspecialty
Flexible or selective components2
Where the requirements allow a choice.
- Pathway 1 - 2.2 Thirteen (13) blocks of selective rotations, including any combination of: (2.2.1) Cardiac Surgery (max 4 blocks); (2.2.2) General Surgery (max 3 blocks); (2.2.3) Thoracic Surgery (max 4 blocks); (2.2.4) non-invasive vascular laboratory (max 4 blocks); (2.2.5) vascular imaging (max 7 blocks); (2.2.6) vascular surgery in a community setting (max 4 blocks); (2.2.7) research in Vascular Surgery (max 10 blocks); (2.2.8) training relevant to the resident's career goals, approved by the program director and Residency Program Committee in advance (max 13 blocks); (2.2.9) additional Vascular Surgery training (max 7 blocks)
- Pathway 2 - 2.1 to 2.8: (2.1) max four (4) blocks of Cardiac Surgery; (2.2) max four (4) blocks of Thoracic Surgery; (2.3) max four (4) blocks of residency in a non-invasive vascular laboratory; (2.4) max four (4) blocks of vascular imaging or interventional cardiology; (2.5) max six (6) blocks of academic enrichment (may include research, or a university degree, diploma or certificate program), relevant to Vascular Surgery, approved in advance by the Residency Program Director; may be taken within another Royal College accredited program (e.g. Clinician Investigator Program); (2.6) max ten (10) blocks of further senior residency in clinical vascular surgery in a program approved by the program director; (2.7) max seven (7) blocks of other rotations approved in advance by the Vascular Surgery program director and residency training committee; (2.8) max ten (10) blocks of training in endovascular therapy
Common questions
More questions about specialists trained abroad, each answered once with its official source, are in the IMG FAQ Center.
What is the Practice Eligibility Route in Vascular Surgery?
The Practice Eligibility Route (PER) is the Royal College process by which an internationally trained specialist can be assessed for eligibility to sit the certification examination in Vascular Surgery without repeating a Canadian residency. The Royal College reads your postgraduate training and practice record against the published Specialty Training Requirements for the discipline.
What training does the Royal College expect in Vascular Surgery?
The Specialty Training Requirements describe pathway 1 (Direct Entry): Five (5) years of approved residency training, incorporating increasing graded responsibility. Pathway 2 (Subsequent Entry): Two (2) years of approved residency training in Vascular Surgery, after successful completion of Royal College accredited training in General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, or Thoracic Surgery. The full block-by-block structure is set out on this page, taken from the Royal College document for this discipline.
Does meeting the training requirements guarantee eligibility?
No. Eligibility is a committee decision made on your individual file, and other factors are considered. This page reproduces the published requirements so you can see how your own training compares before you apply; it is not an eligibility ruling.
Where do I start?
Read the seven steps in the PER guide, then have your training mapped against the Specialty Training Requirements before you pay any fees. The free PDF for this specialty carries the steps, the document checklist, and the Vascular Surgery requirements in one file.
The Vascular Surgery guide as one PDF
The seven PER steps, your document checklist, and the Vascular Surgery training requirements in a single file. Free. Not sure the PER is your route? The screener checks your file against every route in about two minutes.
Other specialties27
Canadian clinical fellowships in Vascular Surgery are in the Fellowship Finder; start with Vascular Surgery fellowships in Canada.
Adapted from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Specialty Training Requirements for Vascular Surgery. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Royal College; every application is reviewed individually and final decisions rest solely with the Royal College. Verify current requirements at royalcollege.ca.