Applicant Requirements

To qualify under the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream with a TEER 4–5 job offer, an applicant must:

• Have a qualifying full-time, permanent job offer in Ontario in a NOC TEER 4 or TEER 5 occupation.
• Have an eligible employer participating in the OINP Employer Portal process.
• Have at least 9 months of cumulative, paid, full-time work experience in the job offer employment position within the required period.
• Have at least a Canadian secondary school diploma or its equivalent.
• Have at least Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 4 in all four language abilities.
• Hold any mandatory licence or other authorization required to legally perform the work in Ontario or Canada.
• Have legal status if applying from within Canada.
• Demonstrate an intention to live and work in Ontario.
• Register an Expression of Interest and receive an Invitation to Apply.
• Provide documents supporting the EOI scoring factors for which points were claimed.
• Submit a complete application within the applicable deadline.

The employer’s application for approval of the employment position must also be approved before the applicant can receive a nomination.

Work Experience Requirement

Applicants with a TEER 4 or TEER 5 job offer must have:

• At least 9 months of cumulative, paid, full-time work experience
• In the employment position the employer is seeking approval for and which is set out in the job offer
• Gained within the 2 years before the applicant submits the OINP application

The qualifying work experience must be in the job offer employment position, meaning it must generally involve the same:

• Occupation
• Employer
• Work location
• Employment position

For this requirement, full-time work experience means at least:

• 30 hours of paid work per week, and
• 1,170 hours of paid work in a 12-month period

The nine months do not have to be consecutive. Because the requirement is cumulative, breaks in employment may be permitted as long as the applicant accumulates the required qualifying experience within the applicable two-year period.

Only work experience completed by the time the application is submitted can be counted toward the work experience requirement.

Education Requirement

Applicants with a TEER 4 or TEER 5 job offer must have at least:

• A Canadian secondary school (high school) diploma, or
• An equivalent credential obtained outside Canada.

If the applicant completed their education outside Canada, they must obtain an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) demonstrating that the credential is equivalent to a Canadian secondary school diploma or higher.

The ECA report must generally be less than five years old when the OINP application is submitted.

Language Requirement

Applicants with a TEER 4 or TEER 5 job offer must demonstrate at least CLB 4 in all four language abilities:

• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Speaking

The language test must have been taken within the two years before the OINP application is submitted.

Accepted English tests include:

• IELTS General Training
• CELPIP General
• PTE Core

Accepted French tests include:

• TEF Canada
• TCF Canada

Unlike certain TEER 0–3 applicants, TEER 4–5 applicants are not provided with the recent Ontario graduate language-test exemption described for the TEER 0–3 pathway.

Licensing or Authorization Requirements

If the job offer is in an occupation that requires a mandatory licence or other authorization under Ontario or Canadian law, the applicant must hold the required valid licence or authorization.

The licence or authorization must be valid:

• At the time the OINP application is submitted, and
• Throughout the nomination period.

Eligible Occupations

A job offer under this pathway must be classified as NOC TEER 4 or TEER 5.

There is no separate prescribed occupation list limiting the pathway to specific TEER 4–5 occupations.

Under the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream, job offers may be in any NOC occupation, provided all applicable applicant, employer and job offer requirements are met.

Ontario may nevertheless conduct targeted invitation rounds based on particular labour market or human capital attributes. As a result, being eligible to register an EOI does not guarantee that an applicant will receive an Invitation to Apply.

Job Offer Requirements

The employer’s job offer must:

• Be for a full-time position.
• Be permanent, meaning the position has no end date.
• Be in Ontario.
• Be urgently necessary to the employer’s business.
• Not affect the employment of a person involved in a labour dispute.
• Meet the applicable wage requirement.
• Be in a NOC TEER 4 or TEER 5 occupation for this pathway.

For OINP purposes:

• Full-time generally means at least 1,560 hours per year and at least 30 hours of paid work per week.
• Permanent means employment of an indeterminate duration with no end date.

Seasonal and contract-based positions are not eligible.

If the applicant is already working for the employer in the job offer position, they must continue working in the approved position as required by the program.

Any changes to the employment terms, including duties, wage, hours or term, must be reported to the OINP.

Wage Requirements

For a TEER 4–5 job offer, the offered wage must generally meet or exceed the applicable median wage for the occupation in the Ontario region where the applicant will work or report to work.

The lower wage threshold available to certain recent Ontario graduates with TEER 0–3 job offers does not apply to TEER 4–5 applicants.

If a regional wage is unavailable, the Ontario wage may be used.

If the Ontario wage is also unavailable, historical Job Bank wage information or national-level wage data may be used.

If the applicant is already working in the position, the offered wage must:

• Meet or exceed the applicable OINP wage requirement, and
• Be equal to or greater than the wage currently being paid to the applicant in that position.

Piecework, bonuses, commissions, vacation pay and non-financial compensation do not count toward the required hourly base wage.

Different rules may apply if the position is covered by a collective agreement.

Employer Requirements

The employer must satisfy the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream’s employer requirements and ultimately receive approval of the employment position.

Generally, the employer must:

• Have been in active business for at least three years before applying.
• Have business premises in Ontario where the applicant will work or report to work.
• Have no outstanding orders under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 or Occupational Health and Safety Act.
• Meet the applicable gross annual revenue requirement.
• Meet the applicable minimum full-time employee requirement.
• Make reasonable domestic recruitment efforts where required.
• Offer a genuine full-time and permanent position.
• Demonstrate that the position is urgently necessary to the business.

Additional requirements apply to employers offering certain transportation positions.

Employer Revenue Requirements

The minimum gross annual revenue requirement depends on the location where the employee will work or report to work.

Greater Toronto Area

For a work or reporting location in the Greater Toronto Area, the employer must generally have at least: $1,000,000 in total gross annual revenue in its most recently completed fiscal year.

The GTA includes:

• City of Toronto
• Durham
• Halton
• Peel
• York

Specified Ontario Census Divisions

For certain specified Ontario locations, the employer must generally have at least: $500,000 in total gross annual revenue in its most recently completed fiscal year.

These locations include:

• Ottawa
• Waterloo
• Hamilton
• Simcoe
• Middlesex
• Niagara
• Essex
• Wellington
• Greater Sudbury
• Frontenac
• Brant
• Peterborough
• Hastings
• Thunder Bay

Other Ontario Locations

For work or reporting locations not included in the categories above, the employer must generally have at least: $250,000 in total gross annual revenue in each of the two most recently completed fiscal years.

Employer Employee Requirements

The employer must also maintain a minimum number of full-time employees who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents at the location where the applicant will work or report to work.

Inside the GTA

The employer must generally have at least: 5 full-time Canadian citizen or permanent resident employees working or reporting to work at that location.

Outside the GTA

The employer must generally have at least: 3 full-time Canadian citizen or permanent resident employees working or reporting to work at that location.

For this requirement, a full-time employee generally means an employee working at least 30 hours per week.

Recruitment Requirements

The employer may be required to demonstrate that reasonable efforts were made to recruit a Canadian citizen or permanent resident before offering the position to the foreign worker.

Recruitment is generally not required if:

• The applicant is already authorized to work in Ontario, or
• The employer has a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) for the same NOC and position.

Where recruitment is required, the employer should generally use at least two advertising or recruitment methods.

Advertisements should generally:

• Be publicly accessible
• Run for at least four weeks before the position is offered
• Include the required information about the employer, position, duties, qualifications, wage, location and contact details

Recruitment conducted by an immigration representative on behalf of the employer is not considered reasonable recruitment by the OINP because of the potential conflict of interest.