Towards the end of August, Ontario invited 703 Express Entry applicants who had experience in Ontario’s target occupations aka occupations in demand.

To be invited in the latest invitation round, Express Entry candidates required a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 466 to 475. If they succeed in receiving the nomination, an additional 600 CRS points will be awarded automatically, which will effectively guarantee them an Invitation to Apply in a corresponding Express Entry draw.

This applies to any successful candidate of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) encouraged applicants to apply for a provincial nomination if they had work experience in one of the following Ontario’s occupations in demand:

• Financial managers NOC 0111
• Advertising, marketing, and public relations managers NOC 0124
• Corporate sales managers NOC 0601
• Financial auditors and accountants NOC 1111
• Other financial officers NOC 1114
• Professional occupations in business management consulting NOC 1122
• Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses NOC 3012
• Allied primary health practitioners NOC 3124
• Dietitians and nutritionists NOC 3132

NOC stands for National Occupational Classification, and the current version that is being used by the government of Canada is NOC_Version_2016.1. In order to obtain Provincial nomination from Ontario, applicants must have at least one year of work experience and must apply to one of the aforesaid occupations under the Human Capital Priorities Stream.

The work experience must have been obtained within the last five years from the date of the application. It may have been obtained in Canada or abroad, but should be “continuous,” which means that there have been no break-in jobs for over a one-year period. It is acceptable to have back-to-back jobs in the same profession but with different employers.

The occupation of the candidate who qualified for invitation from Ontario must be the same primary occupation that the candidate listed in their Express Entry profile.

Express Entry is a system used by the federal government of Canada to manage applications for Canada’s three main economic-class programs:

• Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP),
• Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC) and
• Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

Candidates eligible for any of these programs are given a CRS score in the Express Entry Pool. It is based on their Core/Human capital factors such as age, work experience, education, and language ability in English and French.

The highest-ranked candidates in the pool are then invited to apply for permanent residence through the regular Express Entry draws. Candidates those who have CRS scores below cut-off score can apply for provincial nomination programs, which is the best option to increase their chances of selection. The highest-ranked candidates in the Express Entry pool are issued ITAs in regular invitation rounds.

The OINP officials (Ontario Immigration) parses through the Express Entry pool to ascertain applicants that may meet the requirements for their immigration streams. This year, the federal government allocated 7,600 immigration applicants through the OINP. This allocation includes 250 appointments for temporary employees in intermediate skilled occupations or National Occupation Classification (NOC) skill level C.

A certain number of top candidates are invited to apply for permanent residence in Canada through regular draws, which usually occur once every two weeks.