Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP)

What is the OINP?

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) is Ontario's economic immigration program, the provincial half of Canada's wider Provincial Nominee Program. It lets Ontario nominate people whose skills, education and experience match the province's labour-market and economic needs. A provincial nomination is your stepping stone: you use it to apply to IRCC for permanent residence, but IRCC still makes the final PR decision on a separate application.

Ontario runs the country's largest provincial program. Its 2026 nomination allocation is 14,119, the biggest of any PNP (ontario.ca, February 2026). Even so, demand far exceeds supply, so the Ontario PNP is highly competitive and meeting the minimum eligibility is not the same as receiving an invitation. With the 2026 redesign underway, the program is also in transition, so verify current rules before committing time and fees.

Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program streams and categories

Since 25 June 2026 the OINP has one open worker stream, the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, with a TEER 0 to 3 pathway, a TEER 4 to 5 pathway and a category for self-employed physicians. Every route in it except the physician category needs a full-time, permanent Ontario job offer. Applicants in a TEER 0 to 3 occupation can ask to be nominated through Express Entry, where a nomination adds 600 CRS points. Before the redesign, the program's streams sat in three categories: Human Capital, Employer Job Offer and Business.

Closed OINP streams

Ontario's archived stream pages say each former worker and graduate stream "was closed as of May 30, 2026, as part of the OINP redesign", and amendments to Ontario Regulation 422/17 in force on 25 June 2026 removed all eight. No further invitations are issued under them. Applications submitted after an invitation under a former stream are still assessed against the requirements in effect when they were submitted, and expressions of interest that never led to an invitation are withdrawn automatically (ontario.ca 2026 program updates, read 13 October 2026). Five of them have their own status page, linked in the table below.

Enhanced vs base OINP nomination: the +600 CRS difference

An enhanced OINP nomination goes to a candidate who already holds an active Express Entry profile and adds 600 CRS points to it, while a base nomination sits outside Express Entry and leads to a separate permanent-residence application filed directly with IRCC outside Express Entry. Those 600 points land on your Comprehensive Ranking System score, which lifts most candidates well above the cut-off. In recent rounds for provincial nominees it has generally led to an Invitation to Apply, though IRCC still issues the invitation.

Ontario's former Human Capital Priorities, French-Speaking Skilled Worker and Skilled Trades streams were enhanced. Candidates with skilled Canadian work experience may also qualify under the Canadian Experience Class inside Express Entry.

A base nomination is not connected to Express Entry. Once Ontario nominates you under a base stream, such as the former Masters Graduate, PhD Graduate, Employer Job Offer or Entrepreneur streams, you submit a separate permanent-residence application directly to IRCC. It earns no CRS points and is generally processed more slowly. Not sure where your federal score sits? Try our free CRS calculator; for the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, use the OINP points calculator.

How the OINP Expression of Interest works

Most OINP streams use an Expression of Interest (EOI) system. You create a profile and the program scores you against factors such as work experience, education, official-language ability, and your job offer or ties to Ontario. Ontario then issues Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to the highest-ranked candidates in periodic draws, which in 2026 were often targeted at specific occupations, regions or categories.

Each OINP draw can set its own minimum score and may be limited to selected NOC codes, so the OINP NOC targeting in a given round matters as much as your raw points. Submitting an OINP Expression of Interest places you in the pool. It does not guarantee an invitation. To compare other provinces, see the PNP draw tracker.

OINP draws and the Ontario Workforce Priority stream

As of 12 October 2026, Ontario has held no invitation round under the Ontario Workforce Priority stream: the ontario.ca invitations page lists nothing after 30 April 2026, and the stream's portal opened on 4 August 2026. The last OINP draws, on 30 April 2026, ran under the retired Employer Job Offer streams and invited 1,063 candidates with job offers in the Greater Toronto Area.

• Timing: Ontario says it does not provide advance notice before it issues invitations to apply, and its OINP pages give no date for a first round (ontario.ca invitations page, updated August 11, 2026).
• Scoring: Each registration is scored out of 132 points (117 for self-employed physicians), and no cut-off exists yet for that grid, so the 20 to 63 Foreign Worker minimums of the 2026 rounds, set on a retired 76-point grid, do not apply to it.
• Being ready: Your employer submits the job offer first, you register within 30 calendar days, and an invited applicant has 17 calendar days to apply, so the documents need to be ready before a round.

Our OINP draws tracker carries a table for each round under the new stream, with the date, the invitations issued and the minimum score, and the OINP points calculator scores your registration.

Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program eligibility

OINP eligibility is set stream by stream. Under the former streams, Human Capital streams tested your Express Entry profile, education, skilled work experience and language results, and the graduate streams (Masters Graduate and PhD Graduate) added a recent eligible Ontario credential, often after a study permit and a Post-Graduation Work Permit.

The Employer Job Offer category required a permanent, full-time job offer from an eligible Ontario employer until it closed as of 30 May 2026; its replacement, the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, still needs an Ontario job offer. The former Entrepreneur stream, which tested net worth, investment and a business plan rather than a job offer, has not taken applications since 4 December 2023. Because the published criteria are detailed and, in 2026, actively changing, the safest first step is a profile review against the current ontario.ca program requirements.

How to apply for the OINP

To apply for the OINP you confirm you meet a current stream's requirements, register an Expression of Interest, wait to see whether your score earns an Invitation to Apply, file a complete nomination application with supporting documents inside the deadline, then use the nomination to apply to IRCC for permanent residence. Under the 25 June 2026 redesign the worker route runs through the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, where your employer must submit the job offer before you can register your Expression of Interest.

1. 01

   Confirm your stream

   Check your job offer against the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, under the rules in force now.

2. 02

   Submit your EOI

   Create an Expression of Interest profile where the stream uses one, and maximise every eligible point. For enhanced streams, keep an active Express Entry profile.

3. 03

   Receive an ITA & apply

   If invited, file a complete nomination application within the deadline. Missing documents is a common reason for refusal.

4. 04

   Apply to IRCC for PR

   Use the nomination to apply for permanent residence, through Express Entry (enhanced, +600 CRS) or a separate non-Express Entry application (base).

OINP processing times, fees and the 2026 outlook

IRCC publishes about 7 months to decide a provincial nominee permanent-residence application filed through Express Entry and about 13 months for a base, non-Express Entry nomination, both measured from a complete application (IRCC processing times, updated 9 October 2026). Those are the federal stage only.

Ontario's own nomination decision sits on top of that federal figure, and the province no longer publishes a processing standard for the OINP. Plan the provincial stage as time you cannot pin down rather than a number you can quote, and treat the enhanced route as materially faster than the base route at the federal end: about six months separates the two.

The OINP application fee is $1,500 when the job offer is outside the Greater Toronto Area and $2,000 when it is inside the City of Toronto, Durham, Halton, Peel or York regions, and there is no fee to register an Expression of Interest (ontario.ca, October 2026). The same two amounts apply to a self-employed physician, set by the address of the Ontario medical practice. The fee is paid when you submit the nomination application, within the 17-day window after an Invitation to Apply.

These provincial amounts are separate from the IRCC permanent-residence and right of permanent residence fees at the federal stage, and from our own professional fees. The former Entrepreneur stream, which had its own fee structure, has not taken applications since 4 December 2023. Ontario publishes the current amounts and deadlines on its OINP application process page.

How Wild Mountain Immigration helps with the OINP

Wild Mountain Immigration assesses your profile against Ontario's current priorities, confirms whether the stream you want is enhanced or base, and builds the Express Entry and Expression of Interest strategy that ranks you well. We work under a licensed RCIC (CICC #R706497) to prepare a nomination application that stands up to scrutiny, and we represent you with both Ontario and IRCC.

With the OINP being redesigned in 2026, we keep your strategy aligned to the rules that are actually in force when you apply, and we give you a candid read on your realistic chances first. We are a Canmore, Alberta firm acting online for clients across Canada and abroad, so distance from Ontario is no obstacle.

1. 01

   Confirm the right stream

   We check your job offer against the Ontario Workforce Priority stream and confirm whether a nomination would be enhanced (Express Entry, +600 CRS) or base, under the rules in force now.

2. 02

   Build the EOI and profile

   We prepare your Express Entry profile where the stream is enhanced, maximise every Expression of Interest point, and track the redesign so nothing catches you out.

3. 03

   Nominate and apply for PR

   After an Invitation to Apply we file a complete nomination, then represent you with IRCC through Express Entry or a base permanent-residence application.

Not sure where to begin? Compare the OINP with our Alberta program and the Manitoba MPNP, read how the wider Provincial Nominee Program works, and see our fees before you reach out on the contact page.