GCMS Notes Status Meanings: Eligibility, Medicals & Background Checks

Your GCMS notes track several assessment streams in parallel — eligibility, medical, and background/security — each with its own status. Reading them together tells you how far your application has progressed. Below are the status terms applicants ask about most, in plain language. Note that exact wording varies by application type and can change as IRCC updates its systems.

Common status terms, explained

Eligibility — Not Started / In Progress

An officer has not yet reviewed, or is in the middle of reviewing, whether your application meets the program's requirements.

Eligibility — Met / Passed

The officer is satisfied your application meets the program criteria. 'Met' is typically an intermediate confirmation; 'Passed' indicates the eligibility review is complete.

Medical — Passed

IRCC has reviewed your immigration medical exam (IME) and found you medically admissible. A blank or 'in progress' medical status usually means results are still being assessed.

Background / Security — In Progress

Security and criminality screening is underway. This stage is often the longest and depends on partner-agency responses, so it can sit unchanged for some time.

Criminality — Passed

Criminal background screening has cleared for the people assessed on the file.

What usually comes next

For permanent residence, once eligibility and medicals are passed and security screening clears, the file moves to final review. Applicants are then commonly asked to pay the Right of Permanent Residence Fee (RPRF) if it wasn't paid upfront, and ultimately receive a passport request (PPR). A status that hasn't changed in weeks usually reflects a queue — most often background screening — rather than a problem with your file.