OINP Redesign: All Streams Closed, New Pathways Open

By Dimple Verma, RCIC-IRB R708308 — VG Immigration Services Inc.

Published June 26, 2026 · Based on the official Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development announcement and amendments to Ontario Regulation 422/17 under the Ontario Immigration Act, 2015

All 8 Existing OINP Streams Closed. One New Stream — the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream — Replaces Them. Here Is Exactly What Changed Today and What You Need to Do Next.

Today, June 26, 2026, the Government of Ontario carried out the largest single restructuring of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) since the program’s creation. Amendments to Ontario Regulation 422/17 under the Ontario Immigration Act, 2015 came into force at 12:01 a.m. this morning, and they did three things at once: (1) closed all eight existing OINP nomination streams to new Expressions of Interest (EOIs) and invitations, (2) introduced a brand-new replacement called the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream with three distinct pathways, and (3) tightened the program’s compliance and integrity rules, including cutting the response time for Administrative Monetary Penalty and Ban notices in half — from 60 days down to 30.

This is Phase 1 of a two-phase redesign Ontario has been signalling since the spring. The EOI system is now closed and will reopen later this summer under the new framework. Any EOI or registered job offer that has not already produced an invitation to apply will be automatically withdrawn over the coming weeks. Applications already submitted in response to an earlier invitation will continue to be assessed under the rules that were in effect at the time of submission — the official transition protection candidates have been asking about for months. If you are a current OINP candidate, a registered Ontario employer, a representative managing files, or simply someone who has been tracking Ontario as your most likely PR pathway, this is the policy reset you need to understand line by line.

The 8 Streams That Closed at Midnight

As part of the redesign, every one of the OINP’s previous nomination streams is now closed to new EOIs and invitations. If you had been planning, building, or just researching one of these, it no longer exists as an active pathway in Ontario:

Closed Stream	Who it served until today
Employer Job Offer: Foreign Worker	Skilled workers (TEER 0, 1, 2, 3) with an Ontario job offer, inside or outside Canada.
Employer Job Offer: In-Demand Skills	TEER 4 and 5 workers in agriculture, construction, trucking, food processing, personal support, and child care occupations.
Employer Job Offer: International Student	Recent Ontario graduates with an eligible Ontario job offer and a qualifying credential.
Master’s Graduate	Graduates of eligible Ontario master’s programs — no job offer required.
PhD Graduate	Graduates of eligible Ontario PhD programs — no job offer required.
Express Entry: Human Capital Priorities	High-CRS Express Entry candidates with Ontario links, often invited via tech, French, or healthcare targeted draws.
Express Entry: French-Speaking Skilled Worker	Francophone Express Entry candidates with strong French (TEF/TCF) and English language proficiency.
Express Entry: Skilled Trades	Express Entry candidates with skilled trades work experience in Ontario.

The Entrepreneur stream — which the May 30, 2026 framework also targeted — falls outside this June 26 announcement and is expected to be addressed in Phase 2 later in 2026. For everyone else, today is a hard reset.

What Happens to Existing EOIs, Job Offers, and Applications

This is the question we have received roughly 200 times since the announcement landed this morning. Ontario’s transition protocol is straightforward but consequential:

If your EOI was sitting in the pool without an ITA

It will be automatically withdrawn over the coming weeks as Ontario updates the EOI and application platforms. You do not need to take any action right now. The OINP has confirmed that affected registrants, employers, and representatives will receive a notice directly when their EOI is withdrawn. There are no further invitations under the former streams. None.

If you had a job offer registered under one of the former streams

Same outcome: the job-offer registration is being withdrawn. When the EOI system reopens under the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream, the employer will need to submit a new job offer and a new application for an approval of an employment position in the Employer Portal. The good news for employers: if you were already registered in the OINP employer portal under the former framework, you do not need to re-register the company itself. You just need to register the new job offer.

If you already received an ITA and submitted a complete application

You are protected. Applications submitted following an invitation under a former stream will continue to be assessed against the eligibility requirements that were in effect when the application was submitted. This is the grandfathering clause the OINP committed to in writing on the March 16, 2026 amendments, and Ontario has reaffirmed it explicitly today. Your file does not get re-scored, re-judged, or re-routed.

If you received a Notification of Interest under Express Entry but had not yet applied

This is the most painful category. A Notification of Interest from Ontario gives candidates 45 days to submit an application. If your 45-day window had not closed by today and you can still submit, you are protected under the grandfathering rule. If you let it lapse — or if your eligibility was tied to a closed Express Entry stream and you cannot complete the application — you will need to register a new EOI under the Workforce Priority Stream once it reopens.

Introducing the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream

The replacement framework is a single stream — the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream — built around three distinct pathways. Ontario has stated that the new EOI system is anticipated to open later in the summer of 2026. No firm date has been set, but stakeholder timing signals point to August at the earliest, with September a more realistic launch month given platform updates.

All three pathways share a few common features: every applicant must be a foreign national lawfully residing in Canada or abroad; employer-supported pathways require the job offer to be full-time and permanent in Ontario; and every employer must be registered in the OINP Employer Portal with an approved job offer before an EOI can be linked to that offer. The detail that differs is what comes next — and that is where the three pathways diverge.

Pathway	Job offer required?	Target NOC TEERs	Key minimums
TEER 0–3 pathway	Yes — full-time, permanent, in Ontario	TEER 0, 1, 2, 3 (all skilled occupations)	CLB 6 (CLB 5 for certain occupations); post-secondary degree or diploma; specific work-experience thresholds
Self-Employed Physicians pathway	No — no job offer required	Physicians (NOC 31100, 31101, 31102 expected)	CPSO good standing; valid certificate of registration (independent, academic, or provisional); OHIP billing eligibility
TEER 4–5 pathway	Yes — full-time, permanent, in Ontario	All TEER 4 and 5 (essential occupations across every NOC)	CLB 4; Canadian secondary school diploma or equivalent; 9 months cumulative experience in the last 2 years with the job-offer employer in the job-offer position

TEER 0–3 Pathway: The Replacement for Foreign Worker, International Student, and HCP

If you were on the Foreign Worker, International Student, or Human Capital Priorities track, this is your new home. The TEER 0–3 pathway is the single most important pathway in the redesign — it consolidates three previous streams into one, expands occupational eligibility to all TEER 0, 1, 2, and 3 occupations, and pegs eligibility to clear, defensible minimums.

Work experience — pick one of four

Applicants must demonstrate one of the following. The flexibility here is genuinely new and worth noting:

• 6 months consecutive in the last 12 months in the job-offer position with the job-offer employer. If you have already been working for the Ontario employer who is sponsoring you for 6 months, you are covered.
• 3 months consecutive in the last 12 months in the job-offer position with the job-offer employer — but only if you are a recent Ontario graduate. This is the carve-out that protects the previous International Student stream and is genuinely competitive: 3 months is a low bar for grads who slot into a permanent job immediately.
• 2 years cumulative in the last 5 years in the NOC occupation (anywhere in the world, including outside Canada). This is the equivalent of the old Foreign Worker stream — it lets candidates outside Canada qualify based on relevant occupational experience.
• Licensed applicants are exempt from this requirement. If your job offer is in a regulated occupation and you hold a valid Ontario license to practice — engineers (PEO), pharmacists, registered nurses, accountants (CPA Ontario), and so on — you do not need to demonstrate any prior work experience at all.

Language

Minimum Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 6 in all four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). The new floor is one CLB level higher than several of the old streams used to require, signalling Ontario’s intent to raise the calibre of nominees. For certain occupations — likely those with structured client interaction, regulated communication, or safety-critical instruction — Ontario has reserved the right to permit CLB 5. The detailed list of CLB 5 occupations will be published in the regulations. Test results must come from IRCC-approved tests (CELPIP, IELTS General, PTE Core for English; TEF Canada or TCF Canada for French) and must be valid (less than 2 years old) at EOI submission.

Education

Minimum post-secondary degree or diploma. Candidates with foreign education will need an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) from a designated organization (WES, IQAS, ICAS, ICES, MCC for physicians). Candidates with a Canadian post-secondary credential do not need an ECA. The post-secondary minimum is a measurable lift from the old Foreign Worker stream, which accepted secondary education in some configurations — this is Ontario raising the bar.

Some occupations may carry alternate criteria — Ontario has reserved that authority in the regulation. Always cross-check the published regulations and the OINP program guide for your specific NOC before assuming the standard minimums apply.

Self-Employed Physicians Pathway: No Job Offer Needed

The Self-Employed Physicians pathway is one of two carve-outs in the new framework that do not require a job offer. It is a direct response to Ontario’s documented physician shortage — the province has now made provincial nomination available to internationally trained physicians who are billing through OHIP without needing a hospital or clinic employer to formally sponsor them.

To qualify, candidates must demonstrate all three of the following:

• Be a member in good standing with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). No probationary or pending status; active CPSO membership confirmed.
• Hold a valid certificate of registration in an eligible class: independent, academic, or provisional. The provisional class is significant — many internationally educated physicians completing the Practice Ready Ontario pathway are issued provisional certificates, and Ontario has confirmed those count. Postgraduate education licences are not eligible.
• Be eligible to bill through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). You need an active OHIP billing number — not just CPSO registration. This is the gate that signals you are actually practicing in Ontario, not simply licensed on paper.

For internationally trained physicians who already have CPSO registration and an OHIP billing number, this pathway is one of the cleanest routes to permanent residence available anywhere in Canada in 2026. For physicians still going through credential recognition, Practice Ready Ontario remains the bridge — and once you cross it, this stream becomes your fastest PR option.

TEER 4–5 Pathway: Built for Essential Workers, Now Open to All NOCs

The TEER 4–5 pathway is the most surprising piece of today’s announcement and arguably the most important for workers currently in Ontario on closed work permits in lower-TEER occupations. Where the previous In-Demand Skills stream was restricted to a tight list of NOC codes — agriculture, construction, trucking, food processing, personal support, and child care — the new pathway is open to all TEER 4 and 5 occupations.

That said, Ontario has reserved the right to call up only the occupations it actually needs through targeted draws. Expect strong continued emphasis on long-haul trucking, residential construction, agri-food processing, and personal support work, with new openings for retail managers (TEER 4), hospitality supervisors, transportation support workers, and similar occupations that the province couldn’t reach under the old framework.

Work experience

9 months cumulative experience in the last 2 years in the job-offer position with the job-offer employer. This is a stricter test than several of the old streams — it requires you to have already been working for the Ontario employer who is sponsoring you. There is no pathway for TEER 4–5 candidates outside Canada to qualify under foreign experience alone. The pathway is, in effect, retention-focused: Ontario is using it to keep workers who are already here doing the work.

Language

Minimum CLB 4 in all four skills. This is the same floor as the previous In-Demand Skills stream and remains an achievable bar for non-native English speakers with basic functional language. CELPIP or IELTS results valid within 2 years are required.

Education

Canadian secondary school diploma or equivalent. For foreign credentials, you will need an ECA showing the foreign credential is equivalent to a Canadian high-school diploma. This is one CLB-equivalent step lower than the TEER 0–3 pathway and matches the practical reality of TEER 4–5 occupations.

Rural and Northern Ontario: The Quiet Win for Smaller Employers

Buried in the announcement is a provision that meaningfully changes the math for employers outside the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, Ottawa, and other large urban centres. All three Ontario Workforce Priority Stream pathways will apply lower gross annual revenue requirements to employers located in rural communities.

For the purposes of the program, Ontario defines a rural community as a community located in a census division with a population of less than 150,000. That definition captures essentially every part of Ontario outside the GTA, Ottawa, Hamilton-Burlington, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, and Windsor. Counties in northern, eastern, and southwestern Ontario where small and medium employers have long been priced out of provincial nomination by minimum revenue thresholds will now have a genuine path back in.

The specific dollar thresholds for rural versus non-rural employers have not yet been published — they will appear in the regulations and the program guide. But the structural commitment is clear: Ontario is explicitly using the redesign to broaden geographic access. If you are a small-employer client in Northern Ontario, Eastern Ontario, or one of the smaller Southwestern counties, this is the first OINP change in years that materially favours you.

Program Integrity: The 60-to-30-Day Cut and Why It Matters

The other half of today’s regulatory amendments tightens the compliance and enforcement architecture of the OINP. The two changes employers and representatives need to internalize:

1. The response window for Notice of Intent to Issue an Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) or Ban order has been cut from 60 days to 30 days. If you receive an AMP or Ban notice from the OINP, you now have half the time to respond that you had until yesterday. Miss the 30-day window and the penalty is finalized, the ban is imposed, and your administrative review options narrow sharply. This applies to employers, candidates, and representatives.
2. Notices of contravention can now be sent by email, mail, or in person — and are deemed delivered, not requiring proof of receipt. This brings AMP and Ban notice delivery in line with how the OINP already delivers Notices of Intent to Refuse and Notices of Intent to Cancel a Nomination. The practical implication: the clock starts the moment Ontario sends the email. You do not get to argue you never received it. You do not get a fresh 30-day count from when you actually opened your inbox.

For employers especially, this is a discipline change. Email addresses on the OINP Employer Portal must be monitored daily. Mail addresses on file must be current. Representatives must have an automated inbox-monitoring protocol with their employer clients. A misrouted email at a 100-employee company can now trigger an irreversible penalty with no notice you could have prevented.

What You Need to Do This Week — by Profile Type

Active EOI candidates (any of the 8 closed streams)

1. Watch your IRCC secure account and your OINP candidate portal for the automatic-withdrawal notice — expected within the next few weeks.
2. Map your profile against the new Ontario Workforce Priority Stream pathways. Most candidates with a TEER 0–3 job offer will requalify cleanly. Candidates whose strategy depended on the old Master’s Graduate or PhD Graduate streams (no job offer needed) face the toughest pivot — you will need a job offer for the TEER 0–3 pathway, or you must look at federal Express Entry instead.
3. If your IELTS, CELPIP, TEF, or TCF is older than 18 months, book a retest now. CLB 6 is the new floor and you do not want to retest under pressure once the EOI system reopens.
4. If your ECA is older than 4 years, run a duplicate IRCC report through WES now (CAD $25 + applicable fees) so your ECA stays valid through the Workforce Priority Stream EOI window.

Ontario employers with a registered Employer Portal account

1. Do not re-register the company — your existing Employer Portal registration carries over.
2. Do plan to re-register every active job offer the moment the Employer Portal reopens for Workforce Priority Stream registrations. Old job offers are being withdrawn.
3. Audit every email address on file in your Employer Portal. With the new deemed-delivery rules, the wrong email on file is a financial liability.
4. If your business is in a census division with population under 150,000, gather your gross annual revenue documentation now — the lower rural threshold may make positions eligible that previously were not.

Candidates who had received a Notification of Interest under Express Entry but had not yet applied

1. Check the date on your Notification of Interest. You have 45 calendar days from issuance to submit a complete application. If those 45 days have not lapsed, submit immediately — your file will be assessed under the old rules.
2. If your 45-day window expires before you can submit, you must restart under the Workforce Priority Stream once it reopens. Use the intervening weeks to upgrade language scores and refresh ECAs.

Recent international graduates (Master’s, PhD, or other post-secondary)

1. The Master’s Graduate and PhD Graduate no-job-offer pathways are dead. You now need an Ontario job offer.
2. If you can secure a job offer in a TEER 0–3 occupation with the employer for 3 months consecutive in the last 12, you qualify under the recent-graduate carve-out — the easiest entry point in the new framework.
3. If you cannot land an Ontario job offer quickly, your fastest backup is federal Express Entry under one of the category-based draws (French-speaking, healthcare, STEM, trades, education, or transport). Build a CRS ≥ 470 profile and wait for the next category draw.

What Phase 2 Will Likely Bring — and When

Today’s announcement is explicitly framed as Phase 1 of a two-phase redesign. Ontario has not committed to a Phase 2 launch date, but the consultation record from earlier in 2026 points clearly to three additional streams coming later in 2026 or in early 2027:

• Priority Healthcare Stream — for regulated healthcare professionals (nurses, allied health, lab technologists) with valid Ontario licensure, expected to allow nomination without a job offer.
• Exceptional Talent Stream — a qualitative-assessment stream for researchers, innovators, and recognized leaders in technology, science, arts, and culture, expected to require neither a job offer nor a points-based CRS score.
• Redesigned Entrepreneur Stream — refocused on active business operation including business succession (buying an existing Ontario business), with lower investment thresholds for rural communities.

For now, the Workforce Priority Stream is the only confirmed pathway open to new candidates in the OINP. If your profile depends on Priority Healthcare or Exceptional Talent, your best move is to keep your federal Express Entry profile strong, monitor the OINP program updates page weekly, and prepare your documentation now so you can move the moment the new streams open.

How VG Immigration Helps in This Transition

Today is the kind of day that separates clients who are ahead of the policy from those who are reacting to it. Our practice has been preparing for the OINP redesign since the March 16, 2026 regulatory groundwork, and we have spent the last six weeks running scenario maps for our active OINP clients so that when this day came, no one was caught flat-footed.

Led by Dimple Verma, RCIC-IRB R708308, our team is currently running:

• Same-week OINP transition reviews for active EOI candidates — full audit of profile, documents, and the best pathway to slot into when the new EOI system reopens.
• Employer Portal compliance audits — email addresses, registration accuracy, document control, and AMP/Ban notice monitoring under the new 30-day rules.
• Backup-strategy mapping for candidates whose closed-stream profile does not fit cleanly into the new Workforce Priority Stream — federal Express Entry category-based draws, other PNPs (BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia), and Atlantic Immigration Program assessments.
• Physician pathway readiness for internationally trained physicians completing CPSO registration and OHIP billing setup.
• Rural employer support — helping smaller Ontario employers outside the GTA leverage the new rural revenue threshold when it is published.

For more context on Ontario’s path to today’s announcement and what we have written previously about the OINP redesign timeline, the regulatory groundwork, and adjacent federal moves, see our earlier coverage: the March 16 regulatory framework, our June 25 Healthcare and Social Services Express Entry draw, the June 24 Physicians draw at CRS 223, the Express Entry profile maintenance checklist, and our analysis of Canada’s broader Express Entry redesign.

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VG Immigration Services Inc. · 2 County Court Boulevard, Suite 400, Brampton, Ontario L6W 3W8 · Dimple Verma, RCIC-IRB R708308. This article is general information current to June 26, 2026. It is not legal advice. Always consult a licensed Canadian immigration consultant or lawyer before acting on regulatory changes.