Majority of Ontario provincial nominations were assigned to Express Entry candidates in 2019

As per the 2019 OINP Results, high percentages of the total number of provincial nominations issued last year were given to candidates belonging to the Express Entry category and tech workers. More than half of all the principal applicants who obtained a provincial nomination from the province of Ontario in 2019 were given their invitations via any of the three Express-Entry linked streams.

The Express Entry Human Capital Priorities Stream in Ontario was responsible for bringing in the maximum number of nominations as compared to all other Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) streams. Almost 51 percent of all applicants, 3,750 to be exact, were awarded nominations because of Ontario’s enhanced streams. These streams function alongside the federal Express Entry system.

According to the OINP, about 33 percent of the nominations awarded last year were obtained by candidates who had a job offer in any tech occupation or had existing work experience. This is because of the OINP Tech Draws that take place as part of the Human Capital Priorities Stream. Tech workers had to either produce proof of work experience or a  job offer in any of the eligible tech occupations. Computer programmers, software engineers and designers, IT systems analysts, and interactive media developers were among the tech workers who were nominated.

Job offers are not a compulsory requirement for candidates who want to belong to the enhanced streams. However, a high percentage of the provincial nominations were given to candidates who had job offers ready in Ontario.

The nominations were awarded to people from 1,900 Ontario employers across all industries. At least 35 percent of the nominees had received a job offer in Ontario before they got the nomination. Over 96 percent had a post-secondary degree while 53 percent scored seven or above in their Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) test.