Who Is Eligible for the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream in 2026?

Ontario’s Workforce Priority Stream is an Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) pathway for eligible foreign workers who have a qualifying job offer from an Ontario employer.

The stream covers job offers across TEER 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 occupations. There is also a separate pathway for certain eligible self-employed physicians.

However, having an Ontario job offer does not automatically make an applicant eligible.

Applicants must meet requirements related to their:

• Expression of Interest (EOI) and Invitation to Apply (ITA)
• work experience or mandatory licensing
• education
• language ability
• legal status in Canada, where applicable
• intention to live and work in Ontario
• relationship or ownership interest in the employer’s business

The requirements differ significantly depending on whether the job offer falls under TEER 0-3 or TEER 4-5.

This guide focuses primarily on the applicant eligibility requirements for individuals applying with an Ontario job offer.

Before Applying: EOI and Invitation to Apply Requirements

The Ontario Workforce Priority Stream uses an Expression of Interest (EOI) system. Meeting the minimum eligibility requirements does not mean you can apply immediately.

Your employer must first initiate the process through Ontario’s Employer Portal. Once the employer submits your job offer, you have 30 calendar days to register your EOI.

You should meet the applicable stream eligibility requirements when you register your EOI. Do not register expecting to become eligible later.

Ontario may issue Invitations to Apply (ITAs) based on your EOI score and the criteria of a particular invitation round

If invited, you must provide documents supporting the information and qualifications claimed in your EOI, including your:

• work experience
• education
• language ability
• Ontario work experience
• Canadian earnings history
• legal status
• other EOI scoring factors

Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee an invitation or nomination.

How Long Do You Have After Receiving an ITA?

If Ontario issues you an Invitation to Apply, you generally have 17 calendar days from the date the invitation was issued to submit your application and pay the applicable OINP application fee.

Your employer must submit their application for approval of the employment position before you can submit your own application.

You can prepare your application during the 17-day period, but your application cannot be submitted until the employer has submitted their employment-position approval application.

Because the deadline is measured in calendar days, applicants should begin preparing supporting documents before receiving an invitation whenever possible.

Applicant Eligibility for TEER 0, 1, 2 and 3 Job Offers

Applicants with a job offer in a TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 occupation have several different ways of satisfying Ontario’s work-experience requirement.

The applicable education and language requirements can also change depending on whether the occupation is a listed skilled trade, requires mandatory licensing, or whether the applicant qualifies as a recent Ontario graduate.

Work Experience Requirements for TEER 0-3

There are several possible ways to satisfy the work-experience or authorization requirement.

Depending on your circumstances, you may qualify through:

• 6 months of consecutive experience in the job-offer position
• 3 months of consecutive experience if you are an eligible recent Ontario graduate
• 2 years of cumulative occupational experience
• a mandatory licence or authorization required to perform the job

These are alternative pathways. You do not necessarily have to satisfy all of them.

Option 1: Six Months in the Job-Offer Position

One way to qualify is to have at least 6 consecutive months of paid, full-time work experience in the employment position connected to your Ontario job offer.

The experience must have been gained within the 12 months immediately before submitting your OINP application.

For this requirement, full-time employment means at least:

30 paid hours per week and at least 780 paid hours during the qualifying period.

An important distinction is that Ontario is not simply asking whether you have worked in the same NOC.

For this particular pathway, the experience must be in the actual employment position your employer is seeking approval for and that is identified in your job offer.

That generally means the same:

• occupation
• employer
• employment position
• work location

Applicants should therefore be careful about assuming that six months with a different Ontario employer in the same NOC automatically satisfies this particular pathway.

Option 2: Three Months for Recent Ontario Graduates

Ontario provides a shorter job-offer-position work-experience pathway for certain recent Ontario graduates.

Instead of six months, an eligible recent Ontario graduate can satisfy this requirement with at least:

3 consecutive months of paid, full-time work experience in the job-offer employment position within the 12 months before applying.

The qualifying employment must include at least:

30 paid hours per week and at least 390 paid hours.

However, not every person who studied in Ontario qualifies as a “recent Ontario graduate” for this purpose.

Who Is Considered a Recent Ontario Graduate?

You must have graduated from an eligible Ontario institution within the previous 3 years with one of the following:

• a post-secondary degree or diploma that took at least 2 years of full-time study
• an Ontario College Graduate Certificate
• a master’s degree
• a PhD degree

This distinction is extremely important.

A credential may satisfy the stream’s general education requirement without necessarily qualifying you for the special recent Ontario graduate provisions.

Option 3: Two Years of Occupational Work Experience

Applicants who do not have the required six months with the job-offer employer may potentially qualify through a broader occupational-experience pathway.

You generally need at least:

2 years of cumulative, paid, full-time work experience obtained within the 5 years before submitting your application.

The experience generally needs to be in the same NOC occupation as the employment position in your job offer.

Because this requirement is cumulative, the two years do not necessarily have to be completely consecutive.

Ontario also permits equivalent qualifying paid part-time experience.

Part-Time Work Experience

Ontario recognizes certain combinations of qualifying paid part-time work toward the two-year occupational-experience Ontario permits equivalent qualifying paid part-time experience toward the two-year occupational work-experience requirement.

This can include:

• One job: at least 15 paid hours per week, accumulating at least 3,120 paid hours over a four-year period
• More than one job: at least 30 paid hours per week combined, accumulating at least 3,120 paid hours over a two-year period

Applicants relying on part-time experience should calculate their qualifying paid hours carefully rather than assuming that two calendar years of part-time employment automatically satisfies the requirement.

Special NOC Exceptions to the Same-Occupation Rule

The two-year occupational-experience route contains important exceptions.

Normally, your qualifying experience must be in the same NOC as your job offer. However, Ontario permits certain related experience for specific occupations.

Engineering

If your Ontario job offer is in a technical engineering occupation under NOC Sub-Major Group 223, qualifying experience may include experience in a professional engineering occupation under NOC Sub-Major Group 213.

Pharmacy Assistants

If your job offer is for:

NOC 33103 - Pharmacy technical assistants and pharmacy assistants

qualifying experience may include experience as:

NOC 31120 - Pharmacists.

Nurse Aides and Patient Service Associates

Special rules also apply to certain health-care occupations, including qualifying nursing experience for applicants whose job offer is under:

NOC 33102 - Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates.

Applicants relying on one of these exceptions should verify that their previous NOC and their job-offer NOC fall within Ontario’s specifically permitted combination.

Mandatory Licensing Can Replace the Standard Work-Experience Requirement

Some occupations cannot legally be performed in Ontario or Canada without a professional licence, certification or other authorization.

If your job-offer position requires a mandatory licence or authorization under Ontario or Canadian law, you must hold the required valid licence or authorization from the appropriate regulatory authority.

For qualifying regulated occupations, possessing the mandatory authorization can satisfy the work-experience requirement instead of requiring you to demonstrate the ordinary occupational or job-offer-position experience.

Your licence or authorization must be valid when you submit your application and remain valid throughout the nomination period.

Important Driver Exception

There is an important exception for:

NOC 73300 - Transport truck drivers

and

NOC 73301 - Bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators.

Applicants with job offers in these occupations must still satisfy the minimum six months of consecutive paid work experience in the job-offer position, even if they hold the required licence or qualify as a recent Ontario graduate.

Holding the driver’s licence by itself does not replace this work-experience requirement.

How Ontario Treats Breaks, Vacation and Leave

Understanding what counts as continuous or cumulative work experience can be important.

For cumulative experience requirements, breaks in employment may be permitted as long as the applicant accumulates the required amount of qualifying experience within the applicable time period.

Ontario also indicates that certain normal paid absences generally do not interrupt full-time employment, including:

• vacation
• regular sick leave
• other standard paid short-term leave provided through workplace legislation, collective agreements or employer policies

However, extended leaves are treated as interruptions and should not be counted toward the qualifying work-experience period.

Applicants can only count work experience that has actually been completed by the time their application is submitted.

Future anticipated work cannot be used to reach the required number of months or hours.

Education Requirements for TEER 0-3

The education requirement is one of the areas where applicants can easily misunderstand the new Ontario Workforce Priority Stream.

There is not one education threshold for every TEER 0-3 applicant.

The applicable requirement depends on the occupation.

Most TEER 0-3 Occupations

If your job offer is in a TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 occupation that is not one of Ontario’s listed skilled-trade occupations, you generally need:

A Canadian post-secondary degree or diploma requiring at least one year of full-time study

or

An equivalent foreign educational credential.

Ontario defines one full academic year as generally involving at least 15 hours of instruction per week over an academic year of two semesters, including workplace training that forms part of the program.

Equivalent part-time studies may also qualify where the program is equivalent to at least one full-time academic year.

This means that you do not automatically need a two-year Canadian diploma to satisfy the ordinary TEER 0-3 education requirement.

A qualifying one-year Canadian post-secondary credential can potentially satisfy the basic education requirement.

The separate two-year threshold becomes relevant when determining whether someone qualifies as a recent Ontario graduate.

Education for Listed Skilled-Trade Occupations

The education threshold is different if your TEER 0-3 job offer is in one of Ontario’s specifically listed skilled-trade occupations.

Instead of the ordinary one-year post-secondary requirement, you generally need at least:

A Canadian secondary school/high school diploma

or

An equivalent foreign credential.

This is an important distinction because the same skilled-trade classification can also affect your minimum language requirement.

Which Occupations Are Listed Skilled Trades?

For purposes of the Workforce Priority Stream, Ontario identifies skilled-trade occupations within specified NOC groups, including:

• Major Group 72 - Technical trades and transportation officers and controllers, excluding occupations under Sub-Major Group 726
• Major Group 73 - General trades
• Major Group 82 - Supervisors in natural resources, agriculture and related production
• Major Group 83 - Occupations in natural resources and related production
• Major Group 93 - Central control and process operators and aircraft assembly assemblers and inspectors, subject to Ontario’s stated exclusion
• Minor Group 6320 - Cooks, butchers and bakers
• Unit Group 62200 - Chefs

Applicants should confirm the exact NOC of their job offer before deciding which education and language threshold applies.

Special Education Requirement for NOC 33102

Nurse Aides and Patient Service Associates

If your Ontario job offer is under NOC 33102 - Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates, Ontario permits certain related nursing experience to satisfy the occupational work-experience requirement.

Qualifying experience may include experience under:

• NOC 32101 - Licensed practical nurses
• NOC 31301 - Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses

Applicants relying on this exception should ensure that their previous work experience falls under one of Ontario’s specifically permitted NOC occupations.

Mandatory Licensing and the Education Requirement

Mandatory licensing can also affect the education requirement.

Where the job-offer position legally requires a licence or other authorization under Ontario or Canadian law, proof that the applicant holds the required licence or authorization can satisfy the applicable education criterion.

Again, special rules apply to NOC 73300 transport truck drivers and NOC 73301 bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators, so applicants in these occupations should not assume that licensing removes the other stream requirements.

Foreign Education and Educational Credential Assessments

If you are relying on education completed outside Canada, you generally need an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) showing the Canadian equivalency of your foreign credential.

The assessment must come from an organization designated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Your ECA must also remain valid when you submit your OINP application.

Applicants should therefore check the date of their existing ECA before submitting rather than assuming an older assessment can still be used.

Recent Ontario Graduate Status Explained

The definition of a recent Ontario graduate deserves separate attention because it affects more than one eligibility requirement.

To qualify, you must generally have graduated from an eligible Ontario institution within the previous 3 years with one of the specified credentials:

• a post-secondary degree or diploma requiring at least two years of full-time study
• an Ontario College Graduate Certificate
• a master’s degree
• a PhD degree

Qualifying as a recent Ontario graduate can provide two particularly important benefits.

First, it can reduce the job-offer-position work-experience requirement from six months to three months.

Second, the qualifying Ontario credential can be used instead of the ordinary language-test requirement for TEER 0-3 stream eligibility.

This does not mean every one-year credential qualifies someone as a recent Ontario graduate.

For example, a one-year credential might satisfy another education requirement without satisfying the separate recent-graduate definition.

Language Requirements for TEER 0-3

Language requirements depend on the NOC of your job offer and whether you qualify under the recent Ontario graduate provision.

Most TEER 0-3 Occupations

Applicants generally need at least:

CLB 6 in reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Listed Skilled Trades

If the job offer is in one of Ontario’s listed skilled-trade occupations, the minimum is generally:

CLB 5 in all four language abilities.

Recent Ontario Graduates

An applicant who graduated from an eligible Ontario institution within the previous three years with one of the qualifying recent-graduate credentials can provide proof of that credential instead of satisfying the standard stream language-test requirement.

In other words, a qualifying recent Ontario graduate does not need a language test simply to satisfy this particular minimum stream requirement.

However, language test results can still be important for EOI scoring.

Applicants should therefore distinguish between:

minimum stream eligibility

and

EOI points.

They are not the same thing.

Accepted Language Tests

Where a language test is required, the test date must be within 2 years before the date the application is submitted.

Ontario accepts the following tests.

English

• IELTS General Training
• CELPIP General
• PTE Core

Ontario does not accept IELTS Academic, IELTS One Skill Retake or PTE Academic for this requirement.

French

• TEF Canada
• TCF Canada

Applicants should ensure they take the exact version of the test accepted by Ontario.

Applicant Eligibility for TEER 4 and 5 Occupations

Applicants with job offers in TEER 4 or TEER 5 occupations are assessed under different work-experience, education and language thresholds.

Work Experience for TEER 4-5

You generally need at least:

9 months of cumulative, paid, full-time work experience in the employment position connected to your Ontario job offer.

The experience must have been obtained within the 2 years before submitting your application.

For this requirement, full-time work generally means:

at least 30 paid hours per week and at least 1,170 paid hours.

The experience must relate to the employment position your employer is seeking approval for and which appears in your job offer.

Because the requirement is cumulative, qualifying breaks in employment can occur as long as the required amount of eligible work experience is accumulated within the applicable period.

As with the other work-experience pathways, only experience already completed when the application is submitted can be counted.

Education for TEER 4-5

The general education threshold for a TEER 4 or 5 job offer is lower than the ordinary TEER 0-3 post-secondary requirement.

Applicants generally need at least:

A Canadian secondary school/high school diploma

or

An equivalent foreign credential.

Therefore, a Canadian college diploma or university degree is not necessarily required simply because you are applying to the Workforce Priority Stream.

If you rely on foreign education, an acceptable ECA will generally be required to demonstrate Canadian equivalency.

Language for TEER 4-5

Applicants with a TEER 4 or TEER 5 job offer generally need at least:

CLB 4 in reading, writing, listening and speaking.

The results must come from an accepted English or French test and must remain valid when the application is submitted.

Legal Status in Canada

If you are applying to the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream from inside Canada, you must have appropriate legal temporary resident status.

Depending on your circumstances, this may involve documentation relating to a:

• work permit
• study permit
• temporary resident status
• maintained status

Applicants should also be able to demonstrate that Canadian work experience being relied upon was obtained while they were legally authorized to work where work authorization was required.

Submitting an OINP application does not itself extend your temporary resident status in Canada.

Your immigration status and your provincial nomination application are separate matters.

Intention to Live and Work in Ontario

Applicants must demonstrate a genuine intention to reside in Ontario after becoming permanent residents.

Ontario may consider your existing connections to the province when assessing this requirement.

Evidence can potentially include:

• current employment in Ontario
• previous Ontario employment
• an Ontario job offer
• education completed in Ontario
• a lease or property in Ontario
• professional affiliations or networks
• family relationships
• social connections
• volunteer activities
• previous visits to Ontario

An applicant who does not have extensive existing ties may need to provide other evidence explaining why they genuinely intend to establish themselves in Ontario.

A well-supported intention-to-reside explanation should be consistent with the applicant’s employment, education, family and settlement circumstances.

Ownership or Equity in the Employer’s Business

Another applicant-side restriction that can easily be overlooked concerns ownership of the employer’s business.

The applicant and their family members generally must not hold or have held equity in the employer’s business, directly or indirectly.

There is a limited exception where the equity was received as part of the applicant’s remuneration as an employee and the combined equity held by the applicant and their family members is less than 10% of the employer’s business.

This requirement can be particularly important for applicants who:

• received shares through an employee compensation arrangement
• work for a family business
• previously invested in the employer
• have a spouse or other relevant family member with an ownership interest in the business

Applicants in these situations should carefully review the ownership structure before relying on the Workforce Priority Stream.

Self-Employed Applicants Are Generally Not Eligible

Ontario permits equivalent qualifying paid part-time experience toward the two-year occupational work-experience requirement.

This can include:

• One job: at least 15 paid hours per week, accumulating at least 3,120 paid hours over a four-year period
• More than one job: at least 30 paid hours per week combined, accumulating at least 3,120 paid hours over a two-year period

Applicants relying on part-time experience should calculate their qualifying paid hours carefully rather than assuming that two calendar years of part-time employment automatically satisfies the requirement.

The Workforce Priority Stream is built primarily around a genuine employer-employee relationship.

Self-employed professionals and individuals working under contractual service arrangements without a legal employer-employee relationship generally cannot apply through the ordinary job-offer pathway.

There is, however, an important exception.

Self-Employed Physicians

Ontario provides a separate route under the Workforce Priority Stream for certain eligible self-employed physicians.

Eligible physicians may be able to apply without a conventional Ontario job offer.

Because the requirements for self-employed physicians differ from the ordinary job-offer pathway, physicians should be assessed separately rather than using the TEER 0-3 job-offer requirements in this guide.

Your Employer Is Also Part of the Application Process

Even if you personally satisfy every applicant requirement, your nomination cannot be approved unless the employer and employment position satisfy Ontario’s applicable requirements.

The employer must:

• be registered with the program
• initiate the process through the employer portal
• submit an application for approval of the employment position
• satisfy Ontario’s applicable employer requirements

Ontario must ultimately approve the employer’s application for the employment position before your application for nomination can be approved.

This is why applicant eligibility alone does not guarantee OINP approval.

Employer eligibility and job-offer requirements should be assessed separately.

Your EOI Information Must Be Accurate

When you receive an Invitation to Apply, Ontario can require documentation proving the information and scoring factors you claimed in your Expression of Interest.

Applicants should therefore avoid claiming EOI points unless they can document the underlying factor.

Your:

• employment history
• Ontario work experience
• education
• language results
• earnings history
• legal status
• job-offer information
• other claimed scoring factors

should be consistent with the documents submitted with your application.

A high EOI score does not replace the minimum eligibility requirements.

Similarly, meeting all minimum requirements does not guarantee that Ontario will issue an invitation.

Minimum Eligibility vs. EOI Scoring

This distinction is especially important under the Workforce Priority Stream.

There are effectively two separate questions:

Are you eligible for the stream?

and

Is your EOI competitive enough to receive an Invitation to Apply?

For example, an applicant may satisfy the minimum language requirement at CLB 6 but receive more EOI points for stronger language ability.

Similarly, education, Canadian credentials, Ontario work experience and other factors may affect EOI scoring separately from the minimum requirements described in this article.

Applicants should therefore assess both their eligibility and their EOI score.

Want to estimate your score? Use our Ontario Workforce Priority EOI Score Calculator.

Documents Applicants Should Be Prepared to Provide

The exact document requirements depend on the applicant’s individual circumstances, but applicants may need to provide documents such as:

• passport and identity documents
• current and previous Canadian immigration documents
• work permits or study permits
• educational credentials
• transcripts where applicable
• Educational Credential Assessment results for foreign education
• approved language-test results where required
• employment reference letters
• proof of paid employment
• pay slips
• tax documents
• licensing or professional authorization documents
• an up-to-date résumé
• documents demonstrating Ontario ties
• an intention-to-reside statement where appropriate
• evidence supporting EOI scoring factors
• documents relating to the job-offer employment position

Applicants relying on special work-experience, education or licensing provisions should ensure their documentation clearly establishes why that particular provision applies.

Key Ontario Workforce Priority Eligibility Differences

The Ontario Workforce Priority Stream does not have one identical eligibility formula for every applicant.

For most TEER 0-3 occupations, the general education requirement is at least a qualifying one-year Canadian post-secondary degree or diploma, or foreign equivalent.

For Ontario’s listed skilled-trade occupations, the education threshold can generally be a Canadian high school diploma or equivalent, while the language threshold is generally CLB 5.

Most other TEER 0-3 applicants generally need CLB 6.

Eligible recent Ontario graduates can access important exceptions, including the three-month job-offer-position work-experience pathway and an alternative to the ordinary stream language-test requirement.

Certain regulated occupations may satisfy work-experience and education requirements through a mandatory professional licence or authorization.

NOC 33102 has its own specific education requirement.

Applicants with TEER 4-5 job offers generally need nine months of qualifying job-offer-position work experience, at least a Canadian high school education or foreign equivalent, and CLB 4.

Applicants and their family members must also pay attention to the restriction concerning equity in the employer’s business.

Finally, meeting applicant eligibility requirements alone is not enough. The employer and employment position must also be approved by Ontario, and the applicant must receive an Invitation to Apply through the EOI system.

Final Takeaway

The OINP Workforce Priority Stream offers opportunities across different TEER categories, but the requirements are not the same for every applicant. Your NOC, work experience, education, language ability, licensing requirements and recent Ontario graduate status can all affect your eligibility.

Before applying, make sure you understand which eligibility requirements apply to your specific job offer and whether your employer and employment position meet Ontario’s requirements.

Meeting the minimum requirements also does not guarantee an Invitation to Apply. Your OINP points and the criteria used in individual invitation rounds can also play an important role.

Check Your OINP Points

Want to see how your profile may score? Use our OINP Calculator to estimate your Ontario Workforce Priority Stream EOI score and better understand the factors that contribute to your points.

This article provides general information about the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream and does not constitute legal advice. Immigration requirements and invitation criteria can change. Applicants should verify the requirements applicable to their individual circumstances before applying.