Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP)

Ontario Province is situated in central Canada and is the most renowned destination for overseas immigrants arriving in Canada. It hosts the economic hub of Canada, Toronto City, and the capital of Canada as well Ottawa. Toronto has earned a distinction of being the most Multicultural City globally and multiculturalism is highly celebrated in the Ontario province.

The Provincial Nominee Program of Ontario is termed the OINP - Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. Ontario makes use of this program to offer Permanent Residence to select immigrant applicants so that they can cater to the labor market shortages in the province and contribute to its economy.

OINP supports the employers in Ontario by facilitating the migration of skilled, professional, and managerial overseas workers and foreign students needed to fulfill their human resource demands. The program is operated by the Government of Ontario in partnership with the federal immigration agency IRCC - Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Candidates who are interested to immigrate to the province are required to follow a process with 2 stages:

• Apply for nomination to the Government of Ontario;
• Apply for Permanent Residence to the Canadian Federal Government, if nominated by the province;

A Provincial Nominee Program, OINP, it consists of multiple immigration pathways that enable overseas nationals to obtain the Canada PR Visa. Ontario PNP has been designed strategically to attract immigrants in specific areas who will benefit the province: workers in labor shortage sectors, skilled workers, investors, and entrepreneurs.

Three immigration streams are managed by the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program: Employer Job Offer, Human Capital, and Business Immigration. Each stream is further classified under several sub-categories.

Candidates can choose from 5 streams to directly apply for a nomination from Ontario. These include all 3 sub-streams under the Employer Job Offer stream and 2 sub-streams under the Overseas Student stream.

Among the immigration programs of Ontario, The Entrepreneur Category enjoys a special status as it only accepts Expressions of Interest. Interested candidates must wait for being selected and receive an invitation for application and they cannot directly apply for a nomination. But they are not required to possess a valid profile in Express Entry and thus they also need not fulfill the requirements of any federal immigration program.

Human Capital Program Ontario

Ontario's Human Capital Program consists of several immigration categories that target candidates required for the labor force in the province. These streams give importance to experience, abilities, or skills that demonstrate the ability of the immigrant to join the labor market in Ontario with ease. Immigrants with educational or work experience in the province, proficiency in both French and English, and those having profiles in Express Entry can be successful through one of the below categories:

• Express Entry - Human Capital Priorities
• Express Entry Skilled Worker French Speaking
• Express Entry - Skilled Trades
• Graduate - Masters
• Graduate- PhD

Ontario's Employer Job Offer immigration streams are for applicants with a valid job offer from an employer in the province. Both the job offer and the employer are required to fulfill specific conditions for being considered valid. Additionally, the applicant also has to fulfill specific eligibility criteria based on the stream to which they intend to apply for.

• Overseas Worker
• Overseas Student having a Job Offer
• Skills In-Demand

The Business migration streams of Ontario are aimed at affluent Corporations and Entrepreneurs who are interested to make considerable investments for business development in the province. Corporations and Entrepreneurs with established track records for success can start new business ventures in Ontario. The applicants involved will be nominated for Canada PR Visa if these projects are successful.

• Entrepreneur
• Investor - (Currently Closed)
• Corporate - (Currently Closed)

Ontario PNP draws

The province of Ontario conducts an OINP draw every month. It periodically offers NOI - Notifications of Interest to Express Entry pool candidates and offers them an invite for Nomination application through one of the OINP streams aligned with Express Entry. The methodology and details used for every search are announced after the draws are held.

OINP processing time can be divided into 2 periods:

• The time that is taken by the Ontario province to offer the Nomination
• The time that is taken for the Canada PR Visa to be processed and offered

The province currently estimates its processing times to be around 90 to 60 days for the majority of its immigration streams. The applications for Express Entry Skilled Trades are being processed within 60 to 30 days. The complexity of individual applications determines the processing times for each Business immigration application.

IRCC at the federal level at present processes non-Express Entry nominee applications from provinces within 19 to 15 months. The usual average of 6 months holds good for the streams aligned with Express Entry.

Here are the compulsory Ontario PNP Requirements for the HCP stream:

Appropriate Work Experience

You must have a minimum of 1 year of uninterrupted work experience that is paid and full-time. Also, the experience must be under skill type B, 0, or A as specified in the NOC - National Occupation Classification List.

The work experience must have been obtained in the last 5 years from the date of submission of your application under OINP. Plus, the occupation must also be the same that you have specified in your profile in Express Entry.

You must have a Graduate, Post-graduate, or Doctoral Degree. If you have obtained the degree outside Canada, then you must also submit an Educational Credential Assessment ECA Report.

The evidence for funds demonstrates that you have adequate money for supporting yourself and your dependent family members if any upon your arrival and settlement in Ontario. You can produce statements from your Bank account, mutual funds, or fixed deposits if any.

You must be below 49 years of age when you submit your application to Ontario.

If you have applied through the OINP, you must offer a settlement plan that supports your good intentions of settling permanently in the Ontario province.