The government of Ontario announced that it would issue Notifications of Interest (NOIs, effectively the same as an invitation to apply) to candidates in the Express Entry pool on a weekly basis. These NOIs are issued for the
Human Capital Priorities stream of the
Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program(OINP) — a highly popular, yet unique, stream within the Canadian immigration landscape.
Previously, NOIs for this stream had been issued intermittently, but with no indication of regular issuance periods from the province. Indeed, no NOIs were issued between February, 2016 and February, 2017. Based on Ontario’s recent announcement, all of that is set to change.
The Human Capital Priorities stream operates on a passive model; it is neither first-come, first-served, nor Expression of Interest-based. Instead, the OINP searches the pool for eligible candidates who may settle in the province successfully based on set criteria, and issues them a NOI. Among the criteria is a requirement for the candidate to have at least 400 CRS points.
Invited candidates have six months to register on Ontario’s online application system
and submit the application. Once registered, the candidate has 14 days to submit the application. A government processing fee of $1,500 CAD applies.
Ontario also has an Express Entry-aligned
French-Speaking Skilled Worker stream, which, at the time of writing, remains open consistently. That is to say, it is not passive like the Human Capital Priorities stream.