Ontario’s Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream – Issuance of Notifications of Interest by Targeted Occupations

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) is an economic immigration program designed to help Ontario meet its labour market and economic development priorities.

The OINP continues to improve the program’s responsiveness to labour market and economic development needs and identify more candidates with experience in some of Ontario’s priority sectors and in demand occupations. As part of that vision, the program will begin issuing targeted Notifications of Interest (NOIs) to candidates who qualify for Ontario’s Express Entry Human Capital Priorities (HCP) Stream and who have work experience in specific occupations identified by the OINP.

For these occupation-specific searches only, the OINP will be lowering the required minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score below 400. To qualify, candidates will need to meet all other HCP stream eligibility criteria (see below) and have skilled work experience in one of the targeted occupations.

All applicants to the HCP Stream must meet the following criteria:

•  Work Experience: A minimum of either:
  • one year work experience within the past five years according to the criteria under the Federal Skilled Workers Program, or
  • one year work experience within the past three years according to the criteria under the Canadian Experience Class;
• Education: Equivalent of a Canadian Bachelor’s degree or above;
• Language: A minimum of Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 7 in English or in French;
• Settlement Funds: A minimum level of savings or income in Ontario; and
• Intent: An intention to reside in Ontario long term.

For the week of June 26, 2017, the OINP will be targeting candidates with work experience in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

Please note that in addition to these occupation-specific searches, the OINP will continue regular searches of the Express Entry pool for candidates who qualify for the HCP Stream with a CRS score of 400 points or more. These candidates can demonstrate work experience in any National Occupational Classification (NOC) 0, A and B occupation as long as they have a CRS score of 400 or higher.

Prospective applicants to the HCP Stream are encouraged to create a new profile in the Express Entry system to make it easier for Ontario to identify their profile during its search in the federal government’s Express Entry pool. Please note that if you create a new Express Entry profile, you must delete your old profile.

To ensure processing efficiency and quality customer service, the OINP is monitoring the volume of applications to the HCP Stream and issuing NOIs periodically throughout the year until Ontario’s 2017 federal nomination allocation is fulfilled.

Deadlines for the HCP Stream:

Your Notification of Interest (NOI) is valid for six months. This means that you must register a profile for the HCP Stream in the OINP e-Filing Portal within six months of receiving your NOI from Ontario.

Once you register a profile for the HCP Stream in the OINP e Filing Portal, you must submit your complete application to the OINP within 14 calendar days.

The 14 day deadline to apply following registration for the HCP Stream must not be confused with the validity period of your NOI from Ontario.

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