Three new pathways: two divided by occupational skill level, one created specifically for self-employed physicians

According to the announcement published on Ontario's government website, the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream contains three permanent residence pathways:

• TEER 0 to 3 pathway: for workers in higher-skilled occupations.
• TEER 4 to 5 pathway: for workers in lower-skilled occupations.
• Self-employed physicians pathway: for licensed physicians already registered in Ontario and eligible to bill through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP).

The three pathways are effective immediately, but foreign nationals who wish to be considered must wait until the OINP reopens its Expression of Interest (EOI) system. The OINP says the new EOI system is "expected to open later this summer." Notably, those who already submitted a nomination application under a former stream will continue to have their applications processed by the OINP according to the requirements in effect at the time of submission, unaffected by the new rules.

TEER 0 to 3 pathway: education, work experience and licensing requirements

This pathway is for foreign nationals with a job offer in an occupation that "usually requires some level of post-secondary education or training." Applicants must meet two basic conditions covering both the job offer and language (or status as an Ontario graduate):

• Job offer: a full-time, permanent job offer from an eligible Ontario employer in a TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 occupation.
• Language or Ontario graduate: meeting the minimum standard in listening, speaking, reading and writing that corresponds to the occupation — Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 6 or 5 in English or French; or being a recent Ontario graduate.

On top of this, applicants must also meet one of the following two sets of conditions:

• Licensing: holding a licence to practise a regulated occupation in Ontario; or
• Education plus work experience: meeting the minimum requirements for both post-secondary education and work experience. For education, this means holding a post-secondary degree or diploma from a program of at least one year of full-time study (or meeting specific exemptions for caregivers, skilled trades and the like). For work experience, this means meeting either the "occupational experience minimum standard" (at least two years of cumulative full-time work experience in the same or a related occupation as the job offer within the past five years, with part-time experience convertible under the rules) or the "job offer experience minimum standard" (at least six consecutive months of full-time work with the same employer in the same position within the past 12 months, or three consecutive months for recent graduates of Ontario institutions).

The announcement further clarifies several technical points: post-secondary credentials may come from a Canadian institution or, via a valid Educational Credential Assessment (ECA), from an equivalent foreign degree; full-time work experience is defined as at least 30 hours per week in a single position; part-time experience counts only toward the "occupational experience minimum standard" and accrues on a "one-for-one basis for concurrent positions totalling 30 hours per week, and a two-for-one basis for a single position of 15 hours per week." A "recent Ontario graduate" must have obtained, within the past three years, a degree or diploma from at least a two-year full-time program at an eligible Ontario institution, an Ontario college certificate, or a master's or doctoral degree.

In addition, for specific occupations such as caregivers (NOC 33102), skilled trades, pharmacy assistants, truck and bus drivers, and engineering technicians, the announcement sets out dedicated exemptions and alternative criteria for education, language or work experience. For example, some skilled-trades and production occupations may qualify with only a high school diploma and CLB 5, while truck drivers (NOC 73300) and bus drivers (NOC 73301) may satisfy the work experience requirement only through the single route of "six consecutive months of job offer experience."

TEER 4 to 5 pathway: comparatively streamlined thresholds

This pathway is for foreign nationals with a job offer in an occupation that "usually requires no more than a high school diploma and/or a few weeks of on-the-job training," and its requirements are comparatively simple:

• Job offer: a full-time, permanent job offer from an eligible Ontario employer in a TEER 4 or 5 occupation, paying no less than the median wage for the occupation.
• Job offer work experience: at least nine months of cumulative work experience within the past two years in the same position with the same employer as the job offer.
• Education: a high school diploma or equivalent.
• Language: CLB 4 in all four abilities in English or French.

Self-employed physicians pathway: addressing the primary-care gap

Recognizing that many physicians work as independent practitioners and struggle to meet the traditional "employer job offer" requirement, Ontario created a dedicated pathway for self-employed physicians. Applicants must meet two conditions: being licensed and in good standing in Ontario, holding a valid certificate of registration in the independent practice, academic or postgraduate class; and being eligible to bill through OHIP. The licensing requirements are set by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).

The policy backdrop for this pathway is Ontario's increasingly severe family-doctor shortage. According to data from the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and other bodies, by the end of 2025 more than 2.5 million people in Ontario were without a family doctor, a figure expected to climb to about 4.4 million by 2026 — roughly a quarter of Ontario residents — while more than half of family doctors are considering retiring within the next five years.

Employer eligibility and job offer requirements tightened in tandem

The new stream sets clear thresholds for sponsoring employers. Eligible employers must have a place of business in Ontario, have been operating for at least three years, have no outstanding orders to pay under any of Ontario's major labour laws, and meet minimum annual gross revenue and local headcount requirements that vary by the location of the business:

Note: the "major CMAs" above include Ottawa, Waterloo, Hamilton, Niagara, Essex, Wellington, Greater Sudbury, Frontenac, Brant, Peterborough, Hastings and Thunder Bay.

At the job offer level, the position must be full-time, of indeterminate duration (that is, not a fixed-term contract), needed by the employer's business, and located primarily in Ontario (an exemption may apply for truck drivers and transport operators); if the candidate already works for the employer, the wage may not be lower than the existing level. The wage must meet the median wage for the occupation in that location according to the federal Job Bank; recent Ontario graduates applying through the TEER 0 to 3 pathway may instead be paid at the local low wage level for the occupation. Where local data is missing, the assessment will refer in turn to the most recent historical data for the region and then to current data at the national level.

The regulations also require that, in the director's discretion, the employer must have "made reasonable but unsuccessful efforts to fill the position with a Canadian citizen or permanent resident before offering it to the applicant." As a rule, applicants and their family members may not directly or indirectly hold an ownership interest in the employer's business; an exception applies only where the interest was acquired as part of employee compensation and the applicant and family together hold less than 10% of the total equity of the business. For transportation occupations (NOC 73300 or 73301), the employer must also hold a valid CVOR certificate and have a safety rating of "Excellent" or "Satisfactory" under Ontario's Highway Traffic Act. In addition, OINP approval "must not be likely to affect the resolution of any labour dispute or the employment of any person involved in a labour dispute."

The application process under the new Expression of Interest system

To be considered for nomination under the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream, foreign nationals must create a new EOI profile in Ontario's online system after the Expression of Interest system reopens. For applicants with a job offer, the employer must initiate a new EOI for the worker by submitting a new job offer and a new position approval application after the Employer Portal reopens; employers already registered in the Employer Portal do not need to register again. Once the system reopens, the OINP will select eligible candidates from the EOI pool and issue them invitations, on the basis of which candidates submit a complete nomination application for the OINP to assess.

"Close first, rebuild later": the reform timeline and allocation backdrop

The launch of the new stream is Phase One of a comprehensive overhaul of Ontario's provincial immigration programs. The reform was first proposed in December 2025, when Ontario published a plan to reshape the OINP in two phases through the regulatory registry and sought public comment. In March 2026, Ontario formally amended the law through O. Reg. 47/26, setting May 30 as the date for closing the former streams. On May 30, Ontario closed all of its former permanent residence streams in a single move, with no replacement in place at the time (the list of "closed streams" published officially by Ontario on June 26 names eight, while the former entrepreneur stream was left to be redesigned in Phase Two). The full details of the three new pathways have been published in the latest version of Ontario's O. Reg. 422/17 "General" regulation.

This wave of reform comes against the broader backdrop of federal cuts to provincial nomination allocations. Beginning in 2025, the federal government cut total intake under the national Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) by about 50%, directly compressing Ontario's nomination capacity: Ontario's allocation plunged from 21,500 in 2024 to 10,750 in 2025 (which ran out that December), and although it recovered to 14,119 in 2026, it remained well below the 2024 peak. Even so, Ontario remains one of the largest provinces in Canada's provincial nomination system. David Piccini, Ontario's Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, said that "targeted, skilled immigration is critical to building our workforce and securing Ontario's economic future," adding that the reform aims to ensure that every nomination delivers real results for Ontario's economy and communities.

Some in the immigration industry have noted that Ontario's "close first, rebuild later" approach — with a gap left in between — at one point left many international students, skilled workers and Express Entry candidates with pending files in a state of uncertainty. Others argue that raising employer revenue thresholds and strengthening requirements for local work experience and a direct connection to the employer reflects Ontario's effort to crack down on the fraud and abuse that had previously plagued employer-sponsored streams.

Phase Two: three more pathways to come

Phase Two of Ontario's reform is expected to add three more streams, but as of publication none has a confirmed opening date:

• Priority Healthcare Stream: for healthcare professionals who are already licensed or in the process of becoming licensed, with no job offer required.
• Entrepreneur Stream: for business owners who establish and operate a business in Ontario.
• Exceptional Talent Stream: for foreign nationals who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in fields such as science and technology, literature, the arts and culture, and academia.

The overall pathway to permanent residence through a Provincial Nominee Program

It should be noted that to obtain permanent residence through any Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), an applicant must intend to settle in a province or territory other than Quebec, first obtaining a nomination from the intended province or territory and then applying to the federal government for permanent residence under the provincial nominee class. For the OINP, the full process is roughly as follows: meet all the requirements of at least one OINP permanent residence pathway; work with an employer to submit an eligible EOI profile in the OINP online system; be selected by the OINP and receive an invitation to apply for nomination; submit a nomination application to the OINP; upon approval, receive a provincial nomination and become a provincial nominee; apply to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for permanent residence under the provincial nominee class; upon approval, receive a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) issued by IRCC; and finally complete the landing process to obtain PR. The step of applying to IRCC differs depending on whether the applicant takes the "enhanced" nomination stream aligned with federal Express Entry or the "base" nomination stream — notably, a successful provincial nomination can add 600 points to an Express Entry candidate's Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, essentially locking in an invitation to apply.

Appendix: an explanation of Canada's occupational TEER categories

The Government of Canada classifies occupations using the National Occupational Classification (NOC) system and grades skill levels according to the training, education, experience and responsibilities (TEER) an occupation requires, with TEER 0 being the most highly skilled occupations and TEER 5 the least: