Ontario has not invited a single person to apply for provincial nomination since 30 April 2026. That is 166 days of silence, and it is not an administrative backlog. It is the gap between one immigration system being switched off and the next one being switched on.
If you have been refreshing the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program page waiting for something to happen, here is where things actually stand, what the province did with its allocation before it stopped, and what the new scoring grid rewards.
Ontario had 14,119 nominations to give in 2026
On 6 February the province confirmed its federal allocation: 14,119 nominations for the year. Every nomination Ontario issues, through any stream, comes out of that single number.
Between 2 February and 30 April, across ten draw dates, Ontario issued 13,278 invitations to apply. Then it stopped.
Those two figures are not the same unit and should not be subtracted from each other. An invitation to apply is not a nomination. Not everyone invited submits an application, and not every application is approved. But the scale tells you something: Ontario moved most of a year of invitations in ten weeks.
Who Ontario actually invited
The province ran two kinds of targeted draw in 2026. Some were aimed at occupations, others at regions. Here is the occupational side.
| Target | Invitations | Draws |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare and early childhood education | 3,284 | 2 |
| Skilled trades | 1,404 | 1 |
| Agriculture and other priority occupations | 1,024 | 1 |
| Mining | 759 | 1 |
| Physicians | 241 | 3 |
| Francophone candidates | 146 | 1 |
| Regional Economic Development pilot | 118 | 3 |
Healthcare and early childhood education alone took almost a quarter of every invitation Ontario issued all year. If you work in that sector, the province was not subtle about wanting you.
The regional lesson buried in the March numbers
On 25 March Ontario did something it rarely does. It drew all five regions on the same day, which makes those five cut-off scores directly comparable. This is the single most useful table in this article.
| Region | Foreign Worker stream | International Student stream |
|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Ontario | 53 | 81 |
| Northern Ontario | 54 | 80 |
| Central Ontario, outside the GTA | 55 | 82 |
| Eastern Ontario | 57 | 83 |
| Greater Toronto Area | 61 | 90 |
Same day. Same stream. Same program. A job offer in Southwestern Ontario needed 53 points. The identical profile in the GTA needed 61. For international student graduates the gap was wider still, ten points between Northern Ontario and Toronto.
That is the clearest evidence Ontario has ever published that where your job offer sits matters as much as what it pays.
Then Ontario deleted all eight streams
On 25 June 2026, amendments to Ontario Regulation 422/17 came into force and removed every existing OINP stream. Employer Job Offer: Foreign Worker. International Student. In-Demand Skills. Masters and PhD Graduate. All of them, gone.
If you held an expression of interest under an old stream and had not been invited, it was withdrawn. The pool restarted from zero.
What replaced them is a single stream: Ontario Workforce Priority. The criteria were published on 20 July, the expression of interest portal opened on 4 August, and as of today no invitation round has been held under it.
The new Workforce Priority grid, factor by factor
The new stream scores you on thirteen factors across four sections. There is no age factor anywhere on this grid, which matters enormously if Express Entry has been writing you off for being over forty.
Employment and labour market
| Factor | Best available score |
|---|---|
| Ontario work experience, over 24 months in the offered position | 18 |
| Hourly wage of $40.00 or more | 15 |
| NOC broad occupational category 3, health occupations | 10 |
| Canadian earnings history, $80,000 or more in one year | 10 |
| Legal status, holding a valid work permit | 10 |
| NOC TEER 0 or 1 | 9 |
Self-employed physicians are scored on cumulative medical practice in Ontario instead of a job offer position, up to the same 18 points.
Education, language and region
| Factor | Best available score |
|---|---|
| Official language ability at CLB 9 or higher | 15 |
| Work location in Northern Ontario | 15 |
| Doctorate, or a degree in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or optometry | 10 |
| More than one Canadian post-secondary credential | 10 |
| Ability in both official languages | 10 |
Add the maximums together and the grid tops out at 132 points: 72 from employment and labour market, 20 from education, 25 from language, 15 from regionalization.
What changed on 5 October
Ontario quietly raised the ceiling on the earnings history factor. Registrants who earned $80,000 or more in a single year within the past five years, verified by a Canada Revenue Agency Notice of Assessment, now receive 10 points.
Before the change, the top bracket was simply $70,000 or more for 8 points, which meant someone earning $150,000 scored exactly the same as someone earning $70,000. The full ladder now reads:
| Earnings in a single year | Points |
|---|---|
| $80,000 or more | 10 |
| $70,000 to $79,999 | 8 |
| $50,000 to $69,999 | 6 |
| $30,000 to $49,999 | 4 |
| Under $30,000 | 0 |
Two details people keep getting wrong. It must be one calendar year, not two years added together. And it must appear on an assessed CRA return, so nothing here is self-declared.
Ontario applied the change automatically to every existing expression of interest. If you are already registered, your score updated without you doing anything.
Why Northern Ontario is worth more than any test result
Fifteen points for working in Northern Ontario is the single largest regional swing on the grid, and Toronto scores zero for the same factor. Ontario defines Northern Ontario by census division, and it includes Algoma, which is where our office sits in Sault Ste. Marie.
The full list: Muskoka, Haliburton, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Manitoulin, Sudbury, Greater Sudbury, Timiskaming, Cochrane, Algoma, Thunder Bay, Rainy River and Kenora.
To put fifteen points in perspective, moving from CLB 7 to CLB 9 across all four language abilities is worth seven points. The location of your employer is worth more than two full language bands.
What to do before the first draw
No cut-off score has ever been published for the Workforce Priority stream, because no round has been held. There is no past score to aim at. That makes this a strange and genuinely useful moment, because the pool has been filling since August and nobody holds a head start.
- Register now, not when a draw is announced. Ontario gives no advance notice, and your employer has their own clock to meet once an invitation is issued.
- Check your CRA Notices of Assessment for the last five years. Find your best single year. If any one of them shows $80,000 or more, you are in the new top bracket.
- Look at where the job offer is, not just what it pays. Fifteen points for Northern Ontario against zero for Toronto is the largest single lever most applicants can still move.
- Retake the language test if you are close to a band. CLB 9 is 15 points and CLB 7 is 8. That gap is bigger than most people assume.
Questions we are getting
Does my old expression of interest still count? No. Profiles under the eight closed streams were withdrawn when the regulation changed on 25 June. You need to register again under the Workforce Priority stream.
Do I need an Express Entry profile? No. The Workforce Priority stream does not run through Express Entry and does not use a CRS score. It has its own grid and its own expression of interest system.
When is the first draw? Ontario has not published a draw calendar or a minimum score, and it does not give advance notice. The portal has been open since 4 August.
Can a refugee claimant apply? No. Economic programs require valid temporary resident status at the time of application, and a work permit issued while a refugee claim is pending does not give you that status.
Where this leaves you
Ontario spent most of a year of invitations in ten weeks, deleted its entire programme architecture, rebuilt it around one stream, and has not drawn from it yet. It still has allocation to use, and a cap of 14,119 nominations does not spend itself.
The honest summary is that the door moved. It did not close.
You can score yourself against the current Workforce Priority grid, free, using our OINP and Express Entry calculator. It covers all thirteen factors and has been updated for the 5 October earnings change. A licensed RCIC reviews every result that comes through.
Figures in this article are drawn from the Government of Ontario 2026 OINP Updates page, the Invitations to apply to the OINP page, and the Ontario Workforce Priority stream criteria, all current to 13 October 2026. Ontario can change its scoring grid without notice. This article is general information and not legal advice. For advice on your own situation, speak to a licensed representative.
