OINP: Employer Job Offer Streams – Employer Guide

Learn how to apply for the approval of an employment position for the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, and recruit foreign workers on a full-time and permanent basis.

On this page

1. Overview
2. Before you apply
3. Employer requirements
4. Job offer requirements
5. Supporting documents
6. Completing the Employer Form
7. After you apply

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Overview

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) Employer Job Offer streams provide Ontario’s employers with an opportunity to recruit and retain foreign workers to help fill their labour needs.

To qualify as an employer, you must meet program requirements and have made a job offer for a full-time and permanent position to an eligible foreign worker or international student.

Employer Job Offer streams

1. Employer Job Offer: Foreign Worker stream
   The job offer must be in a skilled occupation at TEER category 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC). The applicant must show that they are qualified for the position by demonstrating they have work experience in the same occupation as the job offer or are licensed or authorized to do the work where the occupation of the job offer is regulated in Ontario.
2. Employer Job Offer: International Student stream
   The job offer must be in a skilled occupation at TEER category 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC). The applicant must have a degree, diploma or certificate from an eligible Canadian institution that has been completed within two years of submitting their application.
3. Employer Job Offer: In-Demand Skills stream
   The job offer must be in an eligible occupation at TEER category 4 or 5 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC). The applicant must have work experience in Ontario in the same occupation as the job offer and have the equivalent of a Canadian high school diploma and language skills in English and/or French.

Before you apply

1. Make sure you meet the mandatory requirements

Each stream has a number of mandatory requirements you as the employer must meet in order to be eligible for nomination. These include:

• employer requirements – what you need to have before you apply
• job offer requirements – what your job offer must include

2. Understand the application process

Please note:

• applicants must have a profile in the OINP e-Filing Portal, have registered an expression of interest for the Employer Job Offer stream of choice and have received an invitation to apply
• to apply for the approval of an employment position, you must complete an Employer Form and provide it to the prospective employee (applicant). The applicant will then submit it with their application online through the OINP e-Filing Portal within 14 calendar days of receiving an invitation to apply

3. Have your supporting documents ready

You also need to make sure you have all necessary supporting documents, in English or French, scanned and ready to upload when the applicant submits the application. If you do not, the application will be returned as incomplete and the application fee will be refunded.

Employer requirements

Please refer to section 4 of Ontario Regulation 422/17 for more details on each requirement.

General requirements

To qualify, your business must:

• have been in active business for at least three years prior to submitting an application
• have business premises in Ontario where the applicant will work
• have no outstanding orders made against your business under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 or the Occupational Health and Safety Act

Revenue requirement

In addition to the general requirements, your business must meet the relevant revenue requirement for its most recently completed fiscal year (the year used for tax or accounting purposes):

• a minimum of $1,000,000 in total gross annual revenue if the applicant will work or report to work at a location in the Greater Toronto Area (City of Toronto, Durham, Halton, York, and Peel regions)
• a minimum of $500,000 in total gross annual revenue if the applicant will work or report to work at a location outside the Greater Toronto Area

Meaning of report to work

In cases where the applicant will work at more than one location, the location where the applicant will report to work means either:

• the location where the applicant’s immediate supervisor or manager works
• the location of the administrative office where the applicant will receive work assignments

Full-time employee requirements

Your business must have at the time of application submission one of the following:

• if the applicant will work or report to work at a location in the Greater Toronto Area (City of Toronto, Durham, Halton, York, and Peel regions), you must demonstrate that your business has at least five full-time employees who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents who work at the location where the applicant will work or report to work,
• if the applicant will work or report to work at a location outside the Greater Toronto Area, you must demonstrate that your business has at least three full-time employees who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents who work at the location where the applicant will work or report to work.

Meaning of full-time employee

A full-time employee is an employee who has worked a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Reasonable domestic recruitment efforts required

You must demonstrate that reasonable efforts were made to recruit a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident prior to offering the position to the applicant, unless either:

• the applicant already has a valid work permit to work in Ontario
• you have a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) for the position

You are not required to demonstrate recruitment efforts if you are supporting an applicant under the Employer Job Offer: International Student stream.

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program is designed to assist you in circumstances where your efforts to fill a position domestically were unsuccessful due to skills shortages. You are expected to conduct domestic recruitment efforts on your own, or with the assistance of recruitment agencies/specialists (for example, headhunters or human resource consulting firms) who have expertise in recruiting domestic talent.

A minimum of two advertising or recruitment methods should be used, including:

• a job bank advertisement with the Government of Canada’s Job Bank
• print media (national or provincial/territorial newspapers, national journals, magazines with national coverage, specialized journals, professional association magazines, newsletters, etc.)
• advertisement on general employment websites (Workopolis, Monster, Indeed, LinkedIn Jobs, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor, Eluta, etc.)
• advertisement on specialist websites dedicated to specific occupation profiles (accounting, marketing, biotechnology, education, engineering, etc.)
• posting on employer’s career website for internal and external candidates
• demonstrated participation at job fairs

In addition, advertisements should be posted for at least four weeks prior to offering the position to the applicant, be accessible to the general public and include:

• business operating name
• business address
• position title and duties
• skill requirements which include education and/or work experience
• wage (where a wage is posted, the median wage must be within the range)
• location where the employee will work (city or town)
• contact information: name, address, telephone number, email address
• date posted and date advertisement will close (dd/mm/yyyy – dd/mm/yyyy)

Job offer requirements

Please refer to section 4 of Ontario Regulation 422/17 for more details on each requirement.

To qualify, you must provide a job offer to the applicant that meets the following requirements:

Full-time and permanent

The job offer must be for a full-time and permanent position.

• full-time means the job must be a minimum of 1,560 hours a year and a minimum of 30 hours of paid work per week.
• permanent means the job must have no end date (also known as an indeterminate duration). Job offers that are seasonal and/or contract based are ineligible.

Position is urgently necessary to your business

The position must be urgently necessary to your business. This means that the job offered must align with your existing business activities and the position must be required to be filled on a priority basis in order to maintain or grow your business.

Position must not affect a labour dispute

The job offer must not affect the employment of a person involved in a labour dispute.

Eligible occupation

The position offered must be in an eligible occupation.

Under the Foreign Worker and International Student streams, the job offered can be in any location in Ontario (inside and outside the Greater Toronto Area) and must be in a skilled occupation at TEER category 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC).

Under the In-Demand Skills stream, the job offered can be in any location in Ontario (inside and outside the Greater Toronto Area) and must be in one of the following eligible occupations in TEER category 4 or 5:

• NOC 44101 – Home support workers, caregivers and related occupations
• NOC 75110 – Construction trades helpers and labourers
• NOC 84120 – Specialized livestock workers and farm machinery operators
• NOC 85100 – Livestock labourers
• NOC 85101 – Harvesting labourers
• NOC 85103 – Nursery and greenhouse labourers
• NOC 85101 – Harvesting labourers
• NOC 94141 – Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers
• NOC 65202 – Meat cutters and fishmongers – retail and wholesale

The position offered must be outside the Greater Toronto Area (City of Toronto, Durham, Halton, York and Peel regions) and must be in one of the following occupations in National Occupation Classification TEER category 4 or 5:

• NOC 94100 – Machine operators, mineral and metal processing
• NOC 94105 – Metalworking and forging machine operators
• NOC 94106 – Machining tool operators
• NOC 94107 – Machine operators of other metal products
• NOC 94110 – Chemical plant machine operators
• NOC 95102 – Labourers in chemical products processing and utilities
• NOC 94111 – Plastics processing machine operators
• NOC 94124 – Woodworking machine operators
• NOC 94132 – Industrial sewing machine operators
• NOC 94140 – Process control and machine operators, food and beverage processing
• NOC 94201 – Electronics assemblers, fabricators, inspectors and testers
• NOC 94204 – Mechanical assemblers and inspectors
• NOC 94213 – Industrial painters, coaters and metal finishing process operators
• NOC 94219 – Other products assemblers, finishers and inspectors

Position is at the required wage level

The position offered must meet the required wage level. If the wage of the employment region where the applicant will work or report to work is not available on the wage report, the Ontario wage should be used.

Under the Foreign Worker and In-Demand Skill streams, the wage offered must meet or be higher than the median wage level, for that occupation, in the specific region of Ontario where the applicant will be working. If the wage of the employment region where the applicant will work or report to work is not available on the Wage Report, the Ontario wage should be used for the median wage level.

Under the International Student stream, the wage offered must meet or be higher than the low wage level, for that occupation, in the specific region of Ontario where the applicant will be working. If the wage of the employment region where the applicant will work or report to work is not available on the Wage Report, the Ontario wage should be used for the low wage level.

If the applicant is already working in the position, the wage of the job offer must be equal to or greater than the wage level that you currently pay the applicant in that position, in addition to meeting or exceeding the required wage level.

Supporting documents

You must provide supporting documents to validate the information in your application and to prove you meet employer eligibility criteria.

All supporting documents must be scanned and uploaded in the online application.

Refer to the document checklist for the list of mandatory documents.

• Employer job offer streams employer checklist

If you do not provide all the required documents to the applicant, the application will be returned.

Completing the Employer Form

The Employer Form provides information about your business and attests that you meet employer and job offer criteria. Once signed, you will need to give the form to the applicant who will scan and upload it with their application.

Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Employer Job Offer Streams Employer Form

This form is to be completed by Ontario employers who are supporting an application to the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program under one of the Employer Job Offer streams. This form must must be given to the applicant to include in their application.

• PDF: English – 009-0233E – Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Employer Form
• PDF: French – 009-0233F – Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Employer Form

Completing section A: assistance with the application

In this section, you are asked whether you have had assistance completing the Employer Form and whether you would like to appoint a representative. You may choose to appoint an authorized representative, such as an immigration consultant or lawyer, to provide advice or help with the application process and to act on your behalf with the OINP.

Authorized representatives are regulated under the Ontario Immigration Act, 2015 and must be:

• a person who is authorized under the Law Society Act, which includes:
  • a lawyer who is a member in good standing of the Law Society of Ontario
  • a lawyer who is a member in good standing of another Canadian provincial or territorial law society and who is authorized to practice law in Ontario
• a member in good standing of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council
• any other individual prescribed by the Minister (none at present)

An authorized representative is an individual who represents, provides assistance, or advises you in connection with your application (Employer Form). No one else is legally allowed to charge you or receive any other type of payment to be your representative. Learn more about who can be representative.

If you wish to appoint a representative, complete this section with your representative’s information and make sure they sign the declaration.

Completing section B: employer information

Legal structure information

In this section, you are asked to enter the date that your business was incorporated. If your business is not incorporated, enter the date that your business was established. This information is used to determine that your business has been active for at least three years before you apply.

If your business is recently established in Ontario but was previously active in another province or outside Canada, you may be eligible if the business was active for at least three years prior to application submission.

If your business was amalgamated within the last three years, you must demonstrate that at least one of the predecessor businesses had been in continuous operation prior to amalgamation.

If you purchased an existing business within the past three years, you must demonstrate:

• that the business had been in continuous operation prior to being purchased
• the purpose of the business remained the same following the purchase (that is, the same products and services continued to be provided)

Note that franchisors and franchisees are treated as separate employers. If you are a franchisee, you are considered the employer (not the franchisor) and will need to enter details about your business in this section.

Business number

You are also asked to provide your business number which is used to confirm that you are the employer and to verify employer criteria. Your business number is a nine-digit number assigned by the Canada Revenue Agency for taxation purposes, that is unique to your business and is used when dealing with federal, provincial or local governments.

Business revenue

In this section, you are asked to enter the amount of revenue that your business generated in the most recently completed fiscal year. You will not be asked to provide the specific amount of revenue but provide the amount within a range. This information is used to determine whether your business has:

• a minimum of $1,000,000 in total gross annual revenue if the applicant will work or report to work at a location in the Greater Toronto Area (City of Toronto, Durham, Halton, York and Peel regions)
• a minimum of $500,000 in total gross annual revenue if the applicant will work or report to work at a location outside the Greater Toronto Area

In cases where the applicant will work at more than one location, the location where the applicant will ‘report to work’ means either:

• the location where the applicant’s immediate supervisor or manager works
• the location of the administrative office where the applicant will receive work assignments

Business profile information

In this section, you are asked for the business address where the applicant will work, or report to work and the number of full-time employees that work at that location. This information is used to determine whether your business has at the time of application submission:

• if the applicant will work or report to work at a location in the Greater Toronto Area (City of Toronto, Durham, Halton, York and Peel regions), you must demonstrate that your business has at least five full-time employees who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents who work at the location where the applicant will work or report to work,
• if the applicant will work or report to work at a location outside the Greater Toronto Area, you must demonstrate that your business has at least three full-time employees who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents who work at the location where the applicant will work or report to work.

A full-time employee is an employee who has worked a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Completing section C: position information

In this section, you are asked for the details of your job offer, including the name of the applicant, the occupation, NOC code, hours of work and wage. This information is used to determine:

• The job offer is for a full-time position and permanent position:
  • Full-time means that the position must require, over the course of a 12-month period, no less than 1,560 hours of paid work per year and no less than 30 hours paid work per week. This includes periods of paid vacation.
  • Permanent means that the job must have no end date (also known as an indeterminate duration).
• The position of the job offer meets the required wage level:
  • Under the Foreign worker and In-demand skills streams, the wage offered must meet or be higher than the median wage level, for that occupation, in the specific region of Ontario where the applicant will be working.
  • Under the International student stream, the wage offered must meet or be higher than the low wage level, for that occupation, in the specific region of Ontario where the applicant will be working.

Additional wage requirements for all job offer streams

If the applicant is already working for you in the position, the wage of the job offer must be equal to or greater than the wage level that you currently pay the applicant in that position, in addition to meeting or exceeding the required wage level.

You must provide the hourly wage the applicant will be paid. If the applicant will be a salaried employee, you can calculate the hourly wage as follows:

• deduct any bonuses or other discretionary benefits from the annual salary
• divide the remaining amount by the number of weeks of work per year. You may use the standard 52 weeks in your calculation
• divide this amount by the number of hours of work per week
• the remaining amount is the hourly wage

The applicant or any member of their family may only hold or have held equity in your business, either directly or indirectly if the equity is/was less than 10% and only if it was obtained as part of the remuneration package as an employee. The combined total amount of equity held by the applicant, or any of their family members, must be less than 10%.

A family member includes the applicant’s spouse, common-law partner and children under the age of 22, including their children.

Completing section D: recruitment summary

You only need to complete this section if you are applying under the Foreign worker or In-demand skills streams where the applicant is not yet in Ontario on a valid work permit, or you do not have a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) for the position.

This information is used to determine that reasonable efforts were made to recruit a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident prior to offering the position to the applicant.

You are not required to demonstrate recruitment efforts if you are supporting an applicant under the International student stream.

If this section is applicable to you, you will be asked to provide a summary of your efforts to fill the position within the local labour market before offering the position to the applicant. The summary should include:

• a description of the job advertisements
• the location where the job advertisements were posted
• the duration of the posting of the job advertisements
• how many individuals applied for the position
• a summary of the recruitment results including the interviews that were conducted

In addition, you will need to provide the applicant with copies of the job advertisements. The applicant will then upload them with their online application. The job advertisements should be the ones the applicant responded to in advance of the job offer.

Do not submit personal information about candidates to the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program.

You may use recruitment agencies, headhunters or HR consulting firms to conduct recruitment on your behalf. You should not employ an immigration representative to assist you with your recruitment.

After you apply

After the online application is submitted, the applicant will get an email to confirm that we have received it.

The applicant can check the status of the application through their account in the OINP e-Filing Portal.

For regular updates on processing times, read OINP Application processing times and nominations issued.

Changes to information provided

You must notify us if there are any changes to the information provided in your application. If you wish to make a change to information you initially submitted, please provide an explanation as to what changes need to be made by email to ontarionominee@ontario.ca.

The email must be sent by the organization contact, signing officer or employer’s authorized representative.

If further documentation is required to support the change, you will be contacted by the program. Please note that submitting multiple employer forms may result in delays to the processing of your application.

The OINP does not accept employer forms submitted after your file has been moved to the assessment stage.

If you wish to appoint or cancel a representative after you’ve applied to the OINP, please submit the Appointing or Cancelling a Representative form.

Withdrawing your application

To withdraw your application for approval of an employment position, the applicant can click on the “withdraw” button next to their file number on their main page of the OINP e-Filing Portal.

Please note: We will only refund the application fee if the applicant withdraws their application before we start processing it.

If the employment position is approved

If your application is successful:

• you will receive an employment position approval letter
• the applicant (nominee) will receive a nomination approval letter, a work permit support letter and a nomination certificate by email.

The nominee will then apply for permanent residence to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) within six months.

The nominee may use the work permit support letter to apply for a work permit from IRCC while their application for permanent residence is being processed. Note that you will need to use IRCC’s Employer Portal and pay an employer compliance fee for the nominee to apply for a work permit with their work permit support letter.

The work permit support letter document is valid for six months. The nominee may request an extension if their work permit is expiring and their application for permanent residence is still in process.

Nominees can request an extension by emailing the OINP at ontarionominee@ontario.ca with the following information:

• copies of their two (2) most recent pay slips
• scanned copy of their work permit

The OINP will review the request and determine whether the conditions of nomination continue to be met. If the conditions are not met, the nomination may be cancelled.

Approval of an employment position

The approval of an employment position is subject to the following conditions:

1. You must employ the nominee in the approved employment position as of the date of nomination, if the nominee is already working for you; or, if not, on the date the nominee obtains a work permit and begins working for you in the approved employment position.
2. You must continue to employ the nominee in the approved position of your job offer until the nominee receives permanent residence. The following terms of the job offer must be maintained:
   • position title and duties
   • wage
   • hours of work
   • work location

You must notify the OINP if you are no longer able to comply with the above conditions. The approval of the employment position or the nomination may be cancelled.

Changes in the position of the job offer

You may offer a promotion to the nominee. You will need to notify the OINP and submit a revised job offer signed by you and the nominee. In addition, the nominee will need to submit a copy of their current work permit and their two most recent pay slips. If necessary, the OINP will issue an updated work permit support letter indicating the new position.

You must also notify the OINP if you withdraw the job offer, the nominee declines the job offer or the nominee’s employment is terminated either by you or the nominee. The approval of the employment position and the nomination will be cancelled if the nominee is no longer working for you.

If the employment position is not approved

If your application is unsuccessful, we will let you know by email. If you think we made an error in our decision that led to your application being refused, you may ask for an internal review.

To request an internal review:

1. download and complete the Notice of Request for Internal Review form. Ensure that you carefully read the instructions on the form
2. in a separate document, clearly identify an error or errors in the director’s decision or order that, if not made, would have resulted in the decision or order being decided differently (see subsection 10(1)(a) of Ontario Regulation 421/17 (general))
3. send the completed Notice of Request for Internal Review form and all supporting documents by email to internalreview-revisioninterne@ontario.ca. You must email us within 30 days of receiving your notice of refusal

Notice of Request for Internal Review
A person or body authorized to make a request for internal review under s. 34 of the Ontario Immigration Act, 2015 (the Act) must complete and file a notice of request for internal review form in order to request internal review of a decision or order of the director.

• PDF: English – 0238e – Notice of Request for Internal Review

  A person or body authorized to make a request for internal review

• PDF: French – 0238f – Notice of Request for Internal Review

  A person or body authorized to make a request for internal review

Additional Information

Do not include any new information that you did not include in your original application, unless that information was not reasonably available to you at the time you submitted your application.

New information that you did not include in your application because of an oversight will not be considered.