Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program

Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP)

Overview

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) is the province’s economic immigration program. It works in partnership with the Government of Canada through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Foreign workers, international students and others with the right skills, experience and education apply to the OINP for a nomination.

The OINP recognizes and nominates people for permanent residence who have the skills and experience the Ontario economy needs, and the Government of Canada makes the final decision to approve applications for permanent residence.

What you need to know

There are three ways you may qualify for a nomination:

Employer job offer category: for workers who already have a permanent job offer from an Ontario employer

Human capital category: for workers who have valuable work experience, education, language skills, and a profile in Canada’s Express Entry system; or for graduate students

Business category: for entrepreneurs looking to start a new or buy an existing business in Ontario

Employer job offer category

The employer job offer category has three streams. You must have a full-time and permanent job offer from an Ontario employer to qualify.

Foreign Worker stream: for workers in skilled positions

International Student stream: for recent graduates in Ontario

In-Demand Skills stream: for intermediate skilled workers in specific sectors, such as agriculture, construction, trucking and personal support workers

Human capital category

The human capital category has two sub-categories, the international graduate streams and Ontario’s Express Entry streams.

International graduates

To qualify under the Masters Graduate or PhD Graduate streams, you must have a graduate degree from an eligible Ontario university and apply within two years of getting your degree.

Masters Graduate stream

PhD Graduate stream

Ontario’s Express Entry

To qualify under Ontario’s Express Entry streams, you must have received a notification of interest from Ontario and have an up-to-date profile with your most current work experience, language tests and education in the federal government’s Express Entry system.

French-Speaking Skilled Worker stream: for French-Speaking skilled workers with the required work experience, education and language proficiency in French and English

Human Capital Priorities stream: for skilled workers with the required work experience, education and language proficiency in French or English

Skilled Trades stream: for workers with work experience in Ontario in an eligible trade occupation

Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program

Business category

The business category has one stream. You must be an entrepreneur from outside of Canada who is looking to implement a new business idea or buy and grow an existing business in Ontario.

Entrepreneur stream

Application process

There are three main steps to follow when applying for permanent residence:

Make sure you qualify

Once you’ve selected the stream you would like to apply under, make sure you meet all the mandatory requirements for that stream.

Apply to be nominated by the Ontario government

Once you’ve chosen your stream, you must apply online, through the OINP e-Filing Portal. It takes between two to three hours to complete the application.

Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program

The application cost for:

the employer job offer and human capital streams is either $1,500 or $2,000

the business streams is $3,500 per business partner or key staff applicant

We only accept Visa, Visa Debit, Mastercard and MasterCard Debit.

Application processing times vary, read application processing times and nominations issued for more information.

Apply to the Government of Canada for permanent residence

If your application is successful and you are nominated by the Ontario government, the next step is to apply for permanent residence through IRCC.

The Government of Canada makes the final decision on who becomes a permanent resident.