Learn how to apply for a nomination for permanent residence in Ontario if you are a foreign national with Ontario work experience in an eligible skilled trade.
Ontario’s Express Entry Skilled Trades Stream is an immigration stream under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP).
It gives foreign nationals with Ontario work experience in eligible skilled trades the opportunity to apply to permanently live and work in Ontario.
You must have a valid profile in the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC’s) Express Entry system and receive a Notification of Interest from Ontario before you can apply online to be nominated by the Ontario government for permanent residence.
If you are nominated, your next step will be to apply to the federal government through IRCC. They make the final decision on who becomes a permanent resident.
To qualify under Ontario’s Express Entry Skilled Trades Stream, you must meet all the requirements below. Please review the steps to apply for all of Ontario’s Express Entry streams. 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.
You must have:
Your work experience must have been:
Cumulative means:
Full-time work experience means:
Part-time equivalent work experience means:
Please note:
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.
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.
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.
For English tests, we accept:
For French tests, we accept:
Learn more about the English and French language tests.
You must have enough money to support yourself and your dependent family members when you settle in Canada.
Note that a family member includes your spouse, common law partner and children under the age of 22, including their children.
You can meet this requirement through one or a combination of any of the following:
Learn more about the amount of money you must have available to apply (see ‘How much money you’ll need’).
Example: You have checked how much money you must have available and, based on your family size, you must have $29,000 (CAD). You have a job offer in Ontario with an annual wage of $25,000 and you have a balance of $5,000 in your savings account for a total of $30,000. By using a combination of your job offer and bank statement, you would meet the settlements fund requirement.
Note: if you provide bank statements that include a one-time large deposit, we may ask you to provide additional documentation to support that your funds are free of debt or liability.
You must intend to live in Ontario after you’re granted permanent residence. We determine this by examining your ties to Ontario, which can include things like: