How to apply for permanent residence in Ontario, Canada

If you’re an international graduate looking to settle down in Canada, the province of Ontario could be your way in. Any immigrant, who has secured a job offer, may apply for the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), which invited 443 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination in November 2020. Successful nominees are awarded an additional 600 CRS points, which guarantees an invitation to apply for permanent residence in Canada.

According to CIC News, 15,000 people obtained Canadian permanent residence in September — less than half of the 35,000 immigrants the country welcomed in September 2019.  The Canadian government plans to attract 1.2 million new Canadian permanent residents in the next two years; international graduates are expected to play a big role in achieving this goal. Therefore, now’s a good time to shoot your shot to immigrate to Canada.

Here’s a brief guide to applying for permanent residence in Canada via the OINP Employer Job Offer: International Student stream.

Fulfil all requirements

Before you apply, you must secure a full-time, permanent job that meets minimum wage. That translates to 1,560 hours a year or minimum of 30 hours a week in Ontario. Note that the position should be a skilled occupation at Skill Type 0 or Skill Levels A or B of the National Occupation Classification (NOC). You can determine the minimum wage for your job by entering its NOC code on the Job Bank website.

Only legal applications will be considered, which means you have to apply while on active study or work permit. Besides that, you should also have received a degree or diploma from an eligible Canadian institution in the past two years. You must have completed more than half of your studies while living in Canada.

Most importantly, you must prove that you intend to live in Ontario once obtaining permanent residence in Canada. This will be determined by examining your ties in the locality, including family, education, employment, volunteering, and property history. Your employer will also have to fulfil certain revenue requirements to host you.

How to apply

You must submit your application online via the OINP e-Filing Portal. It takes about three hours to complete, but fret not, you can do it in several sessions. Just be sure to submit your application within 14 days of registering for the stream. Also set aside an application fee of 1,500 Canadian dollars, payable via credit card only. Last but not least, scan all the necessary supporting documents so that you can upload immediately when applying.

All the best!