Ontario reopens: OINP Workforce Priority stream EOI portal now live (August 4, 2026)

On August 4, 2026, the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development opened the Expression of Interest (EOI) portal for the new Ontario Workforce Priority stream under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP). This is the operational restart of provincial nomination intake in Ontario after the June 25, 2026 amendments to O. Reg. 422/17 that consolidated the previous OINP into a single active stream. If you have been waiting for Ontario to reopen, today is the day.

What is the Ontario Workforce Priority stream?

According to the Government of Ontario, the Workforce Priority stream is an expression-of-interest-based pathway that “offers eligible skilled foreign workers with a qualifying job offer and work experience in any National Occupational Classification (NOC) occupation a pathway to apply to permanently live and work in Ontario.” The stream is also open to eligible self-employed physicians who do not have a job offer. All other legacy OINP streams remain closed. Source: OINP program overview.

Two things make this stream different from any prior OINP intake:

• It accepts every TEER category (0 through 5). A qualifying job offer under TEER 4 or 5 (traditionally non-skilled work) is now a real permanent-residence pathway in Ontario, provided the applicant meets that TEER’s work-experience, language, and education bar.
• Only TEER 0-3 applicants and self-employed physicians can route through Express Entry. Applicants with a job offer in TEER 4 or 5 can only be nominated through the base (non-Express Entry) provincial route.

How the process works

The application follows a strict, deadline-driven sequence:

1. The employer registers and submits the job offer through the OINP Employer Portal. The applicant automatically receives a job offer ID by email.
2. The applicant has 30 calendar days to register the EOI using that job offer ID. Miss the window and the job offer expires — the employer must submit a new one.
3. The EOI remains valid for 12 months in the selection pool.
4. If invited to apply, the employer has 14 calendar days to submit the application for approval of the employment position, and the applicant has 17 calendar days to submit the personal application and pay the fee. The applicant cannot submit before the employer submits.
5. If nominated, apply to IRCC for permanent residence within 6 months — the nomination certificate is valid for six months from the date of nomination.

Self-employed physicians who qualify under the Health Insurance Act with an OHIP billing number and a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario certificate register a Webform-based EOI without a job offer. They have the same 17-day post-invitation application window. Source: OINP application process.

Minimum eligibility: what applicants actually need

Job offer applicants — TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 must meet one of four work-experience routes: six months of consecutive full-time paid work in the job-offer position within the last 12 months (at least 780 hours), three months if the applicant is a recent Ontario graduate (at least 390 hours), two years cumulative full-time paid experience in the same NOC within the last five years (at least 3,120 hours), or a valid Ontario/Canadian licence for a position where licensing is mandatory. Language: CLB 6 in all four skills for non-skilled-trade NOCs, CLB 5 for listed skilled-trade NOCs, or no test required for recent Ontario graduates with an eligible credential. Education: a post-secondary credential of at least one year (or an ECA-equivalent foreign credential no older than 5 years).

Job offer applicants — TEER 4 or 5 must have at least 9 months of cumulative full-time paid work experience in the job-offer position within the last two years (at least 1,170 hours), CLB 4 in all four skills, and at least a Canadian secondary school diploma (or foreign equivalent verified through an ECA).

Two special rules to note: NOC 73300 (transport truck drivers) and NOC 73301 (bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators) must meet the six-month consecutive experience requirement even if they hold a licence or graduated in Ontario. And applicants applying from within Canada must have legal status — valid visitor record, study permit, work permit, or maintained status while awaiting an IRCC decision on a timely renewal. Source: Ontario Workforce Priority stream.

The job offer itself

The employer’s job offer must be full-time, permanent, in Ontario, urgently necessary to the business, not affecting a labour dispute, and meet the required wage level for the location. The Ministry uses hourly-wage bands as a scoring factor rather than publishing a single provincial floor. If the applicant already works for the employer in the position, they must continue working in that role until nominated and throughout the post-nomination period until permanent residence is granted or refused.

Employer eligibility requires at least three years in active business, Ontario business premises, no outstanding orders under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 or the Occupational Health and Safety Act, minimum revenue and Canadian citizen/PR employee thresholds based on job-offer location, and documented recruitment efforts when hiring from outside Canada or Ontario. Ontario Public Service jobs are not accepted. Applications listing the OPS or an OPS entity as the employer “will not be accepted.”

Scoring: how invitations are decided

The Ministry ranks EOIs on a points-based grid. The largest movers are:

• Hourly wage: up to 15 points at $40+/hour (0 points below $20).
• Ontario work experience in the job-offer position: up to 18 points at over 24 months, 15 points at 13-24 months, 12 points at 6-12 months.
• Regionalization: 15 points in Northern Ontario, 10 in Eastern, Southwestern, or Central Ontario outside the GTA, 5 in the GTA outside Toronto, and 0 in the City of Toronto. Regional targeting is the strongest single lever for a low-wage applicant with an out-of-Toronto job offer.
• Language: up to 15 points for CLB 9+, plus 10 more points for meeting CLB 6+ in both English and French.
• NOC broad occupational category: 10 points for Category 3 (Health), 8 points for Category 7 (Trades and Transport), 6 for Category 2 (Sciences).
• Canadian earnings history: up to 8 points based on CRA Notice of Assessment amounts within the last 5 years.
• Legal status in Canada: 10 points on a valid work permit, 5 points on a valid study permit.

Ranking may be general (all EOIs in the pool are ranked) or targeted (only EOIs with specified labour-market or human-capital attributes are ranked). Ontario has not published its first-draw parameters.

Fees

There is no fee to register the EOI. The application fee, paid only after receiving an invitation, is $1,500 if the job-offer location (or the physician’s medical practice address) is outside the Greater Toronto Area, and $2,000 if it is inside the GTA — defined as the City of Toronto, Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. Fees are non-refundable once processing begins. If the OINP deems an application incomplete before processing, the fee is returned.

Express Entry vs. base route

Applicants with a job offer in TEER 0-3 and self-employed physicians may choose to be nominated through Express Entry. Selecting the Express Entry route requires a valid IRCC Express Entry profile from application through nomination, with “Ontario” or “All Provinces and Territories” indicated. If nominated through Express Entry, the applicant has 30 calendar days to accept the nomination in the Express Entry system, receives an additional 600 CRS points, and then has 60 calendar days from IRCC’s PR invitation to submit the federal PR application. TEER 4 and TEER 5 job offers must proceed through the base (paper) provincial nominee route to IRCC — no Express Entry option applies.

What VG Immigration is watching

Three practical points for candidates and employers who want to move today:

1. Employers must move first. Nothing happens on the applicant side until the employer has registered its business in the Employer Portal and submitted the job offer. If an employer has been waiting to hire a foreign worker under the old OINP, this is the first step now.
2. Location matters more than most people realize. A $22/hour job in Sudbury scores identically to a $35/hour Toronto job on wage and Ontario work experience, but it earns 15 regionalization points against Toronto’s 0. Regional employers just became structurally more competitive.
3. TEER 4 and 5 applicants finally have a route. The 9-month experience, CLB 4 language, and secondary-school education thresholds are achievable. But TEER 4 and 5 must proceed through the base route to IRCC — plan for the longer paper timeline versus Express Entry.

If you have an Ontario job offer or are a self-employed physician with an active OHIP billing number, review the stream requirements and the application process. To have Dimple Verma, RCIC-IRB R708308, assess your eligibility and prepare the EOI, Book a Consultation or reach the office at immigration@vgis.ca.

Official sources

• Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) overview — ontario.ca
• Ontario Workforce Priority stream — ontario.ca
• OINP application process — ontario.ca
• O. Reg. 422/17 (General) — Ontario e-Laws