New OINP Scoring Factors Announced for Ontario Workforce Priority Stream

If you have a job offer in Ontario, or you are a self-employed physician hoping to apply without one, these factors can help you understand how you will be ranked against other candidates in the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) pool.

A Quick Recap: The OINP Overhaul

In June 2026, Ontario closed eight older OINP streams and replaced them with a single stream: the Ontario Workforce Priority stream. It has three pathways:

• For workers in TEER 0 to 3 occupations with a job offer
• For TEER 4 and 5 occupations with a job offer
• For self-employed physicians

Nearly a month after the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream was announced, the province has released information on how they will rank and select candidates once they register interest.

The Ontario government also reiterated that the EOI system will open in the summer and encouraged applicants and employers to familiarize themselves with the application process in advance.

Scoring Factors for the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream

Once you meet the minimum eligibility requirements for your chosen pathway and enter the pool, your profile is score based on certain pre-set scoring factors.

Candidates can earn points across five general areas: employment and labour market factors, education, language, and regionalization, meaning where in Ontario the job is located.

Employment and Labour Market Factors

This is an umbrella category made up of several factors, including your NOC TEER category, your NOC broad occupational category, hourly wage, work experience in Ontario and Canada, and your legal status in Canada.

Here is how the points break down for employment and labour market factors.

NOC TEER Category

Your job’s TEER (training, education, experience and responsibility) category describes how much skill and training the role requires. It is based on the second digit of your job’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) code. Higher-skilled roles, TEER 0 and 1, score more points here than lower-skilled roles.

NOC Broad Occupational Category

Ontario also scores your occupation by its broad occupational category, which comes from the first digit of your job’s NOC code. This groups occupations by industry and function, such as business, health, or trades.

Hourly Wage

Wage matters a lot too, and the OINP factors will favour candidates who have higher-paying job offers. Applicants with an hourly wage under $20 will not get any points here — despite the fact the minimum wage in the province currently stands at $17.60 per hour. This factor will not apply for self-employed physicians.

Ontario Work Experience

Ontario places the heaviest weight in this section on time already spent working in the province. This factor rewards candidates who are already established with an Ontario employer over those applying with a job offer but no work history in the province yet.

If you are a job offer applicant with 6 months or more of experience in the job offer position, or if you are a self-employed physician with a practice in Ontario, here are the points you could get:

If you have less than 6 months of experience in the job offer position, you could still get points for your overall work experience in Ontario.

Earnings History in Canada

These points are based on the Notice of Assessment issued by the CRA following your tax filing in the last five years. If you have never filed taxes in Canada, you will not get points for this factor.

Legal Status in Canada

Education Factors

While assessing points for education, Ontario looks at two distinct factors: your highest level of education (Canadian or foreign, provided you have an ECA) and the number of Canadian education credentials you have.

Highest Level of Education

Number of Canadian Education Credentials

To qualify for points under this factor, you must have a Canadian post-secondary education credential from a study program that was at least one year long.

Language Factors

Language ability points are available under two categories; one based on your Comprehensive Language Benchmark (CLB) level in your chosen official language and the other on the number of official languages you know (English or French or both).

Official Language Ability

Your will need to take an approved English or French test that evaluates your language proficiency across four abilities: reading, writing, listening, and speaking). Your OINP points are calculated based on the lowest CLB level of the four abilities. For instance, if you get a CLB 8 in reading, listening, and speaking, but a CLB 6 in writing, you receive 4 points.

You can either take one test, or get points for whichever language test you get better scores in.

Knowledge of Official Languages

Speaking both English and French also adds to your points. You can get points for a language here if you have at least a CLB 6 across all four abilities.

What This Means for OINP Candidates

Although the scoring factors are now public, you cannot register an EOI under the Ontario Workforce Priority stream until the EOI system reopens later this summer.

However, this is a good opportunity to check what your profile’s score would look like. Ontario has changed the points allocated to many factors and has removed some sub-factors entirely. This means if you were previously in the OINP pool or had been planning to enter it, your rank in the pool may not be the same as it would have been before.

Let’s walk through an example. Say you’re a 29-year-old registered nurse (a TEER 1 occupation), with 5 years of work experience overall, but only 1 year of that in your current job offer position. You earn 58,500 dollars a year or $30 per hour. You have an Ontario College Graduate Certificate in Critical Care Nursing. Your job offer is based in Mississauga, which is in the Greater Toronto Area. You’ve scored CLB 7 across all four abilities in both English and French.

Here’s how your scores would look like under the new model compared to the old one:

You would now land at 90 points compared to the 83 you would have received a few months ago, even though nothing in your profile has changed. However, your score — and the direction in which it changes — will depend entirely on your qualifications, experience, and occupation. This example does not necessarily mean your score will improve now.

Instead, use the new scoring factors to get an idea of what your profile score will look like. This will also give you a better idea of how you can make your profile more competitive once the EOI pool reopens.

That said, until draws begin under the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, it is hard to predict how candidates will rank in the pool or how applicants will be selected. OINP draws held earlier this year targeted candidates based on occupations as well as job locations, but it remains to be seen whether that pattern will continue in the second half of the year.