Recently, the province of Ontario has released its allocation for permanent residency applications for 2021. Canadian provinces can only grant a certain number of provincial nominations to support permanent residence applications every year.
This year, Ontario will be authorized to issue 8,350 nominations and an additional 250 nominations specifically for temporary foreign workers employed in occupations classified as National Occupational Classification (NOC) code Skill level C. These occupations require a high school diploma or job-specific training.
The number of nominations issued by Ontario has been rising steadily over the years. In 2019, Ontario nominated 7,391 applicants. It was also the year where Ontario’s immigration minister, Vic Fedeli, lobbied the federal government to increase the allocation to 13,300 nominations by 2022. There hasn’t been a drastic jump since then but in 2020, Ontario managed to nominate 8,054 applicants despite the travel restrictions imposed due to the ongoing global pandemic.
Until May 26, 2021, Ontario has managed to invite 3,801 applicants to different streams under its Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).
How Can You Immigrate to the Province of Ontario in 2021?
The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) has just recently launched an Expression of Interest (EOI) system for all the immigration streams offered under its Employer Job Offer Category. This will allow interested candidates to easily register at any time for provincial nomination through these streams that are not linked with the Express Entry system.
There are two broad categories of immigration streams offered under the OINP. There are PNP streams like the Employer Job Offer Category that are operated independently by the province. Then, there are enhanced PNP streams like the Human Capital Category stream that are linked with the Express Entry system and allow the province to nominate applicants from the Express Entry pool.
Receiving a provincial nomination, however, does not guarantee that your permanent residence application will also be approved by the federal government. The final immigration decision will be made only after you clear all the admissibility requirements, that is, you are not deemed inadmissible to enter Canada.
