Need help with Express Entry and OINP weird situation

[uerceg]

Here's the story.

I initially created Express Entry profile and added all my dependent family members (wife and two kids). Score was 447, so these days pretty insignificant and nothing to hope for. Then maybe a month or two ago I was curious to see how would the score look like if I only state myself in the profile and say that wife and kids will not come immediately with me (but rather try family reunification later). That brought me to 462 points which is still pretty insignificant these days. So we kinda gave up on hopes that we're gonna get drawn and simply left profile in that state.

However, seems like I have stated Ontario as province of interest in wizard when I was creating profile and yesterday I've got an email that Provence of Ontario issued NOI to my profile. :facepalm: In the meantime while giving up on hopes we're gonna get drawn we literally gave up on express entry story and actually in the meantime I found a way to land a job in Canada which would bring us there anyway in a bit different path (haven't accepted it yet). But now with this what happened (and which offers PR at the end of the road vs. working visa path I can take), I am wondering if there is a way to include my entire family back to express entry profile.

Question is very simple: Can I accept NOI (and if I manage to go through that bureaucracy rollercoaster and actually get provincial nomination) and alter express entry profile to include my family members again so that we all can move right away OR am I doomed to submit provincial nomination to version of profile where only applicant is just me?

I have written to Ontario and they responded me to change my express entry profile to include family members and then submit OINP application as a family. Even though I got this answer, this definitely seems kinda odd to me because in my mind, this is kinda cheat - I "kicked out" family members to get better score which caused OINP to happen and after getting additional 600 points, I'm planning to move family back to express entry profile so that we all can go together to Canada.

I definitely don't wanna cheat the system and if getting 600 points and re-adding family members afterwards is considered to be illegal move, I definitely don't wanna consider going down this road at all and would simply ignore/reject this invitation from Ontario.

Thank you in advance for any kind of help and guidance in this weird situation.

 

[Batabata]

Hi! What is your primary NOC?

 

[uerceg]

Hey @Batabata!

Mine is 2174 and wife’s 2172.

 

[uerceg]

@fsw_hk Thanks for your reply!

Thinking out loud now. Ontario officials replied to me to change the profile and add spouse to it and then apply for OINP. Did they simply do that to “put things back in place” meaning that with profile update, my score will fall under the OINP draw cutoff and then when I submit application for OINP they will simply reject it?

 

[uerceg]

Thanks! And the way you proposed - is it kinda “cheat” or standard way? Since I don’t wanna do anything illegal. Also, how probable is it if I get OINP alone to later get rejected for adding family members? In here thinking from perspective of trying to get nomination, spend few thousands of dollars and then family gets rejected, so I ended up wasting time and money for nothing?

 

[uerceg]

@fsw_hk This story is now getting interesting turn. So I decided to write to ontarionominee[at]ontario[dot]ca. I wrote them (twice, didn't believe what they wrote first time so played dummy and asked same thing again described in way more detail how I think that this might be cheat and cause rejection of nomination) and I definitely got this two times confirmed:

• They told me that after issuing NOI, they don't care about any changes in Express Entry profile or CRS score. Even if changes are made which would lower the CRS score, they said that those things do not affect NOI and decision about my application for provincial nomination.
• They told me to submit an application and add my wife and children in there as well.

I must ask one more time: Is this real and is it really possible that things work like this? My brain absolutely refuses to believe in this because to me, this is still cheating.

 

[uerceg]

Thanks for the advice! Thing which made me sad now was that I discovered that soft landings are not permitted anymore during COVID period which completely messes up with my plans. :/

Nevertheless, if I decide to go for it, any advice where can I find one of these lawyers (hopefully avoid some scam)?

 

[mvneema10]

I am in a similar situation. My current profile has spouse in it. Received NOI letter but getting divorced from spouse. I mailed them saying I m not planning to have my spouse added. They replied saying I can edit my martial status as separated while applying oinp application. If that is the case, can I go ahead and update the Express entry profile also?

 

[mvneema10]

Also how long do we have to be to submit the documents. Does 45 days start from the day we open/start the oinp application or from the day we received the notification of interest letter? Because I do have documents like PCC for India and US like 8 months back. Should I receive a recent one ? I do want to know in terms of validity

 

[uerceg]

According to answers I got from them, yes. They told me to go ahead and change profile while / before applying for OINP because they don’t care about profile / CRS score updates after issuing NOI.

From what I understood, 45 days from the moment when that invitation landed into your express entry profile inbox.

Question for you though: Where did you see that PCC is needed for OINP application? I read their website and what the requirements are and didn’t see PCC in there.

 

[mvneema10]

According to answers I got from them, yes. They told me to go ahead and change profile while / before applying for OINP because they don’t care about profile / CRS score updates after issuing NOI.

From what I understood, 45 days from the moment when that invitation landed into your express entry profile inbox.

Question for you though: Where did you see that PCC is needed for OINP application? I read their website and what the requirements are and didn’t see PCC in there.

I did not see it anywhere. I assumed we require PCC for applying.

 

[uerceg]

Ah, okay. It’s not needed as far as I saw, so confused me a bit.