Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) has been ready with legal amendments to the Ontario Immigration Act (OIA) which will enable a total overhaul of all the existing flow streams, a special draw, and a formalization of the steps, which may be followed by those on the immigration applications as supported by an employer in Ontario.
These modifications will be made on May 30, 2026, so the possibility exists that new streams can be put into effect on that day as well, but this has not been determined by the province when writing.
The amendments to the OIA provide a clue on the type of reforms that the immigration authority of Ontario is about to implement in 2026.
On May 30, these categories of applicants eligible for provincial nomination will be revoked
The OINP has (as of May 30, 2026) officially pledged to revoke the following classes of applicants to a certificate of nomination, which are generically related with the various OINP streams in place at the time of writing:
- The foreign worker category;
- The international student has job offer category;
- The demanded skills group;
- The masters graduate group;
- The Ph.D. graduate category;
- The human capital priorities category;
- The skilled worker group of the French speaking;
- The skilled trades bracket; and
- The entrepreneur category.
Practically, this will imply that the individuals who are currently fitting the above categories (according to the eligibility criteria of each stream) will cease to be eligible.
As of the writing, OINP did not give any additional information about whether this change is permanent, or whether newly introduced categories will be used to include the same applicants or when it is expected to be created.
Previous consultations with the stakeholders have seen the province telegraph which new streams they were considering.
This action is in a broader transition that will enable the Ontario immigration minister to be more relaxed and be able to redefine OINP by developing or eliminating streams of selection as it was earlier mentioned.
New regulations support targeted draws for all streams
The other change that will be effected on May 30 is the development of the draw selection criteria to include both targeted and general draws under each category (or stream) that applicants must have an invitation to apply (ITA) prior to submitting their application.
Specifically, it will now be within the power of the OINP director to determine whether to make the general or specific invitations to apply to a certificate of nomination.
Under the new rules, in case the director decides to make specific application invitations, the applicants will only be ranked in accordance with the number of labour market or human capital attributes, which would meet the targets set, and invitations to apply will only be issued to the highest ranking applicants in that category with such attributes.
The targeted draw ranking would be on the basis of a candidates:
- Degree and major, and institution studied;
- Fluency in official languages (English or French);
- Plans to move outside of Toronto Greater Area;
- Ability and level of work experience, record of earnings or any other circumstance pertinent to their employment opportunities within the Ontario labour and employment market; or
Capability to fulfill the short-term labour market demand of Ontario or needs of the labour market of a particular area within the province.
General draws will be conducted as they are today, where ranking of candidates in a category is done based on program scoring criteria and the top-ranked candidates will be awarded ITAs.
A director, according to the meaning of this word in the OIA, is a government official designated by the immigration minister to provide leadership to the administration and enforcement of the Act.
This office has great legal authority under the law, such as the authorization or rejection of the applications to the OINP and the imposition of the administrative penalty to non-conforming individuals and enterprises.
Verification procedures for employer job offers
The changes to the verification of employer job offers which are facilitated through the introduction of the OINP new employer portal and related verification through the OINP under its streams of the job offer are also codified in the amended regulations.
Specifically, the changes in the OIA, which are to be made on May 30, formalise the fact that:
Candidates in any category who are provincial nomination applicants and who must have an offer of employment in Ontario shall not submit an application to a provincial nomination where the offer of employment is not made by an employer who is registered with “the director”; and
Prior to seeking approval of an employment position, employers are required to be registered with the director and provide an eligible job offer (to the candidate) to the program.
What new streams could be instituted by the OINP?
Consultations on planned program changes were distributed by the OINP to interested stakeholders in December 2025, and in the consultations, the province suggested a significant redesign of its streams, designed in two phases.
In phase one, the province would combine three current Employer Job Offer streams, and it would have two streams (one stream would be higher skilled TEER 03 occupations and one stream would be TEER 45 occupations.
Under phase two, there would be the removal of all the prevailing streams and the creation of three completely new streams:
- a priority healthcare stream;
- an entrepreneur stream; and
- a brilliant flow of talent.
Our special article on the subject provides more details on the suggested streams and new eligibility requirements by each of the streams.
TEER is an acronym that means Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities and is the Canadian federal governmental method of categorizing the skill level of occupations under National Occupation Classification (NOC), with TEER = 0 being the most skilled, and TEER = 5 being the least.