November 18, 2015

Temporary Pause on OINP “Base” Stream Applications

Posted by Legal Team - Bellissimo Law Group PC

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) offers employers and investors the opportunity to recruit and retain highly skilled foreign workers in Ontario. The OINP also provides foreign workers and international students the opportunity to permanently live and work in the province.

The program assists successful nominees to gain permanent residence status in Canada. Each year, the total number of nominations permitted by Ontario PNP is capped by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”).

As of 16 November 2015, OINP has announced they have exhausted its “base stream” allocation for 2015 of 2,500. OINP will however continue to accept nominee application(s) under the Foreign Worker and International Student with a Job Offer streams where their respective employers have already received pre-screen approval.

New Employer pre-screen applications or applications under the Master’s and PhD streams will not be accepted for the remainder of this year. The program will only welcome new applications under these streams commencing on January 1, 2016.

Nominee applications that have not been finalized in the 2015 will automatically be placed in priority for finalization in 2016.

It is important to note that this pause does not affect the OINP Express Entry stream. This category remains open and applications are still being accepted under this sub-category. Currently eligible categories under the OINP Express Entry categories are:

For more information on the OINP Express Entry Categories, please click here.

(Source)