Learn how to apply for a nomination for permanent residence in Ontario if you have a PhD degree from an Ontario university.
The PhD Graduate stream gives international graduates with an Ontario PhD degree the opportunity to apply to permanently live and work in Ontario.
You must first register in the OINP’s Expression of Interest System and receive an invitation to apply before you can apply online to be nominated by the Ontario government for permanent residence.
If you are nominated, your next step is to apply to the federal government through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). They make the final decision on who becomes a permanent resident.
After you receive an invitation to apply, you may apply to the PhD Graduate stream. You must meet all the requirements in the categories below in order for your application to be approved. You don’t need a job offer to apply.
Please refer to section 9 of Ontario Regulation 422/17 for more details on each requirement.
You must have completed the requirements necessary to obtain a PhD degree. The degree must be from an eligible university in Ontario (see the list of eligible Ontario universities offering PhD degrees below).
At least two years of your PhD studies must have been completed while legally living and studying in Ontario.
You don’t qualify if you have received a bursary, grant or scholarship that requires you return to your home country after you earn your PhD degree. You may only apply after you have fulfilled those commitments and can demonstrate an intention to live in Ontario.
You must have legally lived in Ontario for at least one year in the past two years before you apply.
Note that your one year of residency can be cumulative. This means that there can be gaps provided that all the periods of residency in Ontario add up to 12 months within the past two years before you apply.
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 in order 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.
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 and work in Ontario after you’ve been granted permanent residence. We determine this by examining your ties to Ontario, which can include doing things like:
If you are applying from within Canada, you must have legal status (a visitor record, study permit, or work permit) at the time you apply and should maintain that status until the time of nomination.
You may apply if you are in ‘implied status’ at the time of your OINP application submission. ‘Implied status’ means that you submitted an application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to renew/extend your temporary status document (a visitor record, work permit, study permit) before its expiry date. You can remain in Canada and continue to work or study under the same conditions as your existing permit until a decision is made on your pending IRCC application.
You must submit your application within two years of completing the requirements necessary to obtain your PhD degree.
This means that the date on your degree must be within two years of your OINP application submission date, not the date you received the invitation to apply. For example, if your degree is dated June 1, 2021, you must have registered an EOI, received an Invitation to Apply, and submitted your application on or before June 1, 2023.
If you don’t have your degree yet, use the date on the official letter from your university which states when your degree will be granted.
Once you register an expression of interest under this stream you will be assigned points based on the following factors.
If you are invited to apply, you will be required to submit specific documents to support each scoring factor for which you received points. Scoring factors are not the same as stream criteria. You must meet all criteria for this stream and provide the mandatory documents with your application. Refer to the document checklist for the PhD Graduate stream.
Before you can apply to this stream you must register an expression of interest and receive an invitation to apply.
To qualify for the PhD Graduate stream, your PhD degree must be from one of the universities listed below: