OINP: Express Entry Skilled Trades Stream

If we identify you as a candidate, we will send you a Notification of Interest (NOI) through your IRCC online account inviting you to submit an online application to the OINP

Please note: Before you apply, you will need to make sure you meet the mandatory requirements for this stream. An NOI does not guarantee that you meet stream criteria or that your application will be approved.

You have 45 calendar days after you receive a NOI through your IRCC online account to complete and submit an application to the OINP.

Due to demand for Ontario’s Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream, not all Express Entry candidates who meet Ontario’s stream criteria will receive an NOI. To be responsive to Ontario’s labour market needs, parameters are set for each search conducted in the Express Entry pool. Notification of Interest (NOI) may be issued to candidates who not only appear to meet stream criteria but who also appear to meet other requirements, such as having work experience in targeted occupations or sectors. You can review the details of each search conducted in the Express Entry pool.

Mandatory requirements

To qualify under Ontario’s Express Entry Skilled Trades Stream, you must meet all the criteria in the seven categories below. You do not need a job offer to apply.

Please refer to section 12 of Ontario Regulation 422/17 for more details on each requirement.

1. Work experience

You must have:

• at least one year of cumulative paid full-time work experience (or the equivalent in paid part-time work) in Ontario  in a skilled trade that is listed in Minor Group 633 or Major Groups 72, 73 or 82 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC)

Your work experience must have been:

• obtained within the last two years from the date of submitting your application to the OINP
• in one or more of the occupations that you identified in your Express Entry profile
• in Ontario while maintaining legal status in Canada

Cumulative means:

• the work you’ve done must add up to one year, but it does not have to be one year of continuous work

Full-time work experience means:

• working in a job with at least 30 hours of paid work in a week that amounts to at least 1,560 hours of paid work in one year

Part-time equivalent work experience means:

• working in one job for at least 15 hours per week for two years that amounts to at least 1,560 hours in that two-year period, or
• working in more than one job for at least 30 hours per week for one year that amounts to at least 1,560 hours of paid work in that one-year period

Please note:

• your work experience must have been obtained over a period of at least one year
• work experience totaling 1,560 hours obtained in less than one year period does not qualify
• if you worked in a compulsory trade, only work experience acquired after becoming qualified to practice that occupation in Ontario will qualify
• paid work experience gained while studying full time at a post-secondary institution (for example, on a co-op work term) and self-employment are not eligible
• volunteer work and unpaid internships do not count as work experience

2. Valid certificate or licence (if applicable)

If you are claiming work experience in a compulsory trade, even if you are no longer working in the trade, you must have a valid certificate or licence in Ontario at the time you apply and you must have held a valid certificate or licence that covers the period of work experience that is being used to meet the minimum one year of work experience in an eligible skilled trades occupation.

Find out if your job is in a compulsory trade that requires a licence.

3. Current residence in Ontario and legal status in Canada

You must be living in Ontario and hold a valid work permit at the time you apply.

If your work permit expired, you may still apply to the OINP if you have submitted an application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to renew/extend your work permit before its expiry date. In these cases, you are considered to be in implied status. You can remain in Canada and continue to work under the same conditions as your existing work permit until a decision is made on the pending application.

You are not required to have a job at the time you apply.

4. Language

You must be able to understand, read, write and speak either English or French at a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 5 or higher.

To prove that you have the mandatory language skills, you must take an approved English or French language test before you submit your application to this stream.

The test must not have been taken more than two years from the time you submit your application.