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There has been a recent report that has concluded that Ontario’s Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) shows software engineers and designers as the leading occupations among nominees in the year of 2017. Interestingly enough, the majority of these nominees come from India and China. This update was produced by Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration who ultimately provides any information pertaining to Ontario’s Immigrant Nominee Program as well as any other significant information on Ontario’s immigration strategy. Therefore, in this article, I will address the report and other pertinent information regarding Ontario’s Immigrant Nominee Program.
The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program was established and intended to allow the province of Ontario to nominate skilled foreign nationals, including their families, for permanent residency in Canada. Under this program, the potential foreign nationals must have a connection with the province of Ontario. The specific foreign nationals that are targeted through the OINP program include skilled workers, entrepreneurs as well as international students. Ontario employers are also permitted to participate in this program by supporting their efforts to attract and obtain skilled workers to work for them in Ontario.
Ontario is one of Canada’s most popular provinces for foreign nationals to immigrate. As a result, Ontario has obtained approximately 6 thousand nominations through Canada’s federal Provincial Nominee Program in the year of 2017. In actuality, this is one of the highest allocations in the past ten years. Ontario has recently implemented a new immigration strategy and thus has stated that improving the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program is essential and is expected to significantly increase in terms of the number of potential nominees.
This can be evidently seen in the report as Ontario only had approximately 1,300 nominations in the year of 2013; whereas, in the year of 2017, the nominations had risen to approximately 6,000. This is a significant difference.
Within Ontario’s top five leading occupation categories, software engineers and designers hold the highest places. Other occupations that follow include computer programmers and interactive media developers. Ontario has attracted many nominees with these occupations and, conclusively, the report has stated that the majority of nominees from the year of 2017 has been in occupations from Information and Commuincations Technologies (ICT) occupations.
As previously mentioned, a majority of these nominees are primarily from India with approximately 1,800 nominees and China with approximately 1,600 nominees.
The province of Ontario has implemented two new immigration streams which include the Express Entry: Skilled Trades Stream and the Employer Job Offer: In-Demand Skills Stream pilot. For more information on the Express Entry: Skilled Trades Stream, please watch our video “Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Stream for Tradespersons.” These new immigration streams are evidence that Ontario is diligently working hard to improve the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program’s labour market needs in the year of 2017.
Evidently, there is a high demand with regards to the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) and, thus, the province of Ontario has expanded its human resources to implement a new online application system. This new online application system is expected to significantly reduce processing times for eligible nominees. Specifically, the processing times for OINP applications are now approximately 60 days from the application submission date.
Another very popular stream under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program is the Human Capital Priorities Stream which works in conjunction with Canada’s Express Entry pool. This specific stream opened several times during the year of 2017. The intention of this stream is to allow the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program to explore the pool for qualified and eligible candidates and to be able to issue them Notifications of Interest (NOIs). The Notifications of Interest (NOIs) essentially work as an invitation to apply for a provincial nominee certificate.
In June of 2017, the province of Ontario also executed a new Human Capital Priorities-linked initiative. This initiative ultimately prioritizes Express Entry pool candidates with qualified work experience in approximately 15 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) occupations.
The province of Ontario was very busy in June of 2017 as they also worked closely with the government of Canada to reform the national temporary foreign worker system. As a result, they launched the Global Skills Strategy (GSS) and the Global Talent Stream. These new implementations are two-year pilots that assist and support Canadian businesses to find foreign talent with the required in-demand skills. Interestingly enough, the Global Skills Strategy (GSS) provides a two-week long service standard to process Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications for temporary foreign workers and also to help Canadian employers to further comprehend their immigration options for their employees.
Ontario is working very hard to address and discuss concerns and challenges that face Canadian employers and to adequately identify their labour market needs. These discussions happen within a series of roundtables referred to as Minister’s Employers Tables. Through these important discussions, the province of Ontario is able to gather Canadian employer’s perspectives on prospect immigration needs and to determine which are the best practices with regards to policy and programming.
They have ultimately produced three specific objectives that have high priority, which include:
It is essential that you have taken all of the aforementioned important information in consideration if you are interested in applying for the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP). Additionally, if you are unsure what requirements are needed from you to apply for the OINP, it is always best to research before applying. Applying under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) for permanent residency in Canada is a difficult task to do on your own; therefore, it is highly recommended that you seek out professional and experienced help before attempting to submit the application. Here, at Akrami & Associates, we work and have experience with many different immigration issues. We have helped many of our clients apply through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) and have helped them obtain permanent residency in Canada, specifically in Ontario. If you believe that you might be eligible, then please feel free to contact Akrami & Associates at our office at 416-477-2545 for more information or if you would like to book a consultation with an immigration professional for more advice.
With Akrami & Associates, there is always a way!
