Ontario Closes All Eight Nominee Streams and Opens a Single Workforce Priority Stream

Ontario has carried out the single largest restructuring in the history of its provincial immigration route. On 26 June 2026, amendments to Ontario Regulation 422/17 came into force, closing all eight existing streams of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) and replacing them with one new stream, the Ontario Workforce Priority stream. The Government of Ontario describes this as the first phase of a two-phase redesign. For anyone who was planning to use one of the old streams to reach Canadian permanent residence through Ontario, the route they were aiming at no longer exists, and a new set of rules now applies.

Background

The OINP is the provincial side of Canada’s economic immigration system. Ontario nominates candidates, and a nomination adds substantial weight to a federal permanent-residence application, either through Express Entry or through a paper-based process. Until this change, the program ran eight separate streams, each with its own eligibility rules. Ontario says the redesign is meant to simplify those pathways, raise the standard of the candidates it selects, and strengthen oversight of employers. It arrives during a period in which Canada has been lowering its overall immigration targets and tightening selection across federal and provincial programs.

What exactly changed

The eight closed streams are Employer Job Offer: Foreign Worker, Employer Job Offer: In-Demand Skills, Employer Job Offer: International Student, Master’s Graduate, PhD Graduate, and the three Express Entry streams (Human Capital Priorities, French-Speaking Skilled Worker, and Skilled Trades). In their place sits the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, built around three pathways. The first is for workers in higher-skilled occupations, classified as TEER 0 to 3 under the National Occupational Classification, who hold a full-time, permanent Ontario job offer; it generally requires Canadian Language Benchmark level 6 (level 5 for some occupations) and a post-secondary degree or diploma. The second is for workers in lower-skilled TEER 4 and 5 occupations with a full-time, permanent job offer; it requires Canadian Language Benchmark level 4 and a Canadian secondary-school diploma or equivalent. The third is for self-employed physicians, who do not need a job offer but must be members in good standing of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and eligible for the provincial health plan. Ontario has also added revenue flexibility for rural and northern employers in smaller census divisions and shortened the response time for administrative monetary penalty notices from 60 days to 30.

Who it affects

The people most affected are candidates who were preparing to apply under one of the now-closed streams. A recent master’s graduate who was relying on the Master’s Graduate stream, or a skilled worker counting on an Express Entry-linked Ontario nomination, now has to qualify under the new pathways instead. Employers are affected too: Ontario says employers who were already registered do not need to register again, but they must submit new job offers under the redesigned stream. Self-employed physicians gain a clearer dedicated pathway. Because the new rules raise the language and education benchmarks, some candidates who met the old thresholds may find the bar has moved.

What this means in practice

For now, no one can submit a new Expression of Interest to Ontario, because the system is closed while the province moves to the new stream. Ontario has said only that it expects to reopen it later in the summer, without giving a date. If you are planning an Ontario route to permanent residence, the practical step is to check your occupation’s TEER category, confirm which pathway fits, and compare your language test result and education against the new benchmarks before the system reopens. Employers should be ready to issue fresh job offers under the new framework. You can read more about the wider Canadian context in our Canada country guide at /country-guides/canada, and follow the official OINP page for the reopening date.