Ontario has invited Express Entry candidates who may be eligible for a nomination from the Human Capital Priorities Stream.

Ontario invited immigration candidates in the Express Entry pool to apply for a provincial nomination, on February 2.

A total of 283 candidates were invited, with Comprehensive Ranking System scores between 466 and 467.

The candidates, invited by the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), may be eligible for the Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream (HCP). This Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) gives foreign workers—with skilled work experience— the opportunity to permanently settle in Ontario. In turn, the skills that immigrants bring through the PNP fill shortages in Ontario’s labour market.

In this draw, the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) invited Express Entry candidates to apply for the provincial nomination if they had work experience in one of the following 10 occupations:

• Banking, credit and other investment managers (NOC 0122);
• Advertising, marketing and public relations managers (NOC 0124);
• Other business services managers (NOC 0125);
• Corporate sales managers (NOC 0601);
• Financial auditors and accountants (NOC 1111);
• Financial and investment analysts (NOC 1112);
• Human resources professionals (NOC 1121);
• Professional occupations in business management consulting (NOC 1122);
• Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (NOC 3012); and
• Business development officers and marketing researchers and consultants (NOC 4163).

Invited Express Entry candidates need to demonstrate that they have at least one year of work experience in one of these occupations. These candidates are not yet applying for permanent residence, they are applying for a provincial nomination, which will effectively guarantee them a chance to apply for Canadian immigration in a subsequent Express Entry draw.

Express Entry is an application management system for three federal immigration programs: Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), and Canadian Experience Class (CEC). Express Entry candidates are eligible for one of these programs.

Once in the Express Entry pool of candidates, the immigration department, IRCC, awards points to candidates based on their human capital factors such as age, work experience, education, language ability in English or French, and other factors.

A nomination from a PNP automatically gives Express Entry candidates an additional 600 points. Since most Express Entry draws require candidates to have scores in the 400’s, candidates who receive the nomination are well-positioned to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for Canadian permanent residence in a subsequent federal Express Entry draw.

Last year, Ontario invited 6,716 Express Entry candidates to apply for a provincial nomination through the Human Capital Priorities stream. This was the largest proportion of all the Express-Entry linked PNP nominations that Ontario issued in 2020.