CIC News

Ontario nominated 9,000 immigration applicants for permanent residence in 2021, hundreds more than planned.

Last May, the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) announced that it was allowed to welcome 8,600 newcomers in 2021. Of these, 250 could be working in National Occupational Classification (NOC) skill level C occupations, which generally require a high school education or specific job training. Before the end of the year, Ontario got an additional 400 nominations from the federal government through an in-year reallocation.

This is not the first time Ontario exceeded its original allocation. In 2020, Ontario nominated 8,054 principal applicants to apply for Canadian permanent residence even though it was originally allowed 7,350.

In Canada, the federal government gives each of the provinces a set number of nominations they are allowed to issue. These nominations support immigration applications, which all must go through the federal government. Provincial nominations signal to the federal government that this applicant can help support provincial and territorial goals for economic and population growth. Last year, Ontario’s immigration minister, Monte McNaughton, called on the federal government to double the province’s allocation of immigrants to support labour shortages.

Ontario is among the majority of Canadian provinces and territories, other than Quebec and Nunavut, that participate in the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). PNPs allow provincial governments to create immigration programs for people who have in-demand skills, connections to the region like work or study experience, or who want to create business and investment opportunities that could thrive in the labour market.

If you want to immigrate to Ontario through a PNP, you might want to decide if applying as an Express Entry candidate is your best route, or if it makes more sense to go through a base stream. Base streams are paper-based applications, and you do not necessarily need to be eligible for Express Entry.

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