So the bright new year is here and our hopefulness quota is all the way up to the brim. This year will see an increased number of total immigrants landing in Canada and there is an increase in quotas for all economic categories and the PNP programs.

Of all the PNP programs, perhaps Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) has most expectations from the eager and anxious candidates who are waiting for their calling in the Express Entry pool.

Lets first get the OINP – HCP criteria and conditions clear:

1. You should have a valid EE profile
2. You must be eligible for either FSW (Federal Skilled Worker) or CEC (Canadian Experience Class) programs under Express Entry
3. You should have indicated an interest in immigrating to either Ontario or “All Provinces and Territories” when you create a profile in Express Entry
4. You should have 1-year eligible work experience within the last 5 years for FSW and 1-year valid Canadian work experience within the last 3 years for CEC
5. You must have an ECA reflecting a Canadian educational equivalency of “at least” a Bachelors
6. Must have obtained a minimum CRS score under the Express Entry system as determined by the director.
7. Please note that not all applicants who meet Ontario’s stream criteria will receive an NOI.

So if you are an eligible candidate in the EE profile having a score and NOC that OINP chooses, then you may receive an NOI (Notification of Interest to apply). Once you receive this NOI and wish to proceed to “apply” for nomination from Ontario, you can then log-in to OINP e-filing portal and submit your documents and application within 45 days. OINP may take 2-4 months to process your application and if successful will award you the nomination and therefore add 600 points to your CRS score, whereby you can then get an ITA for the FSW/CEC Express Entry Draw.

Now, these are the basic criteria to be eligible to obtain an NOI (Notification of Interest to apply) from OINP.
Earlier OINP also had a requirement for the candidate to have a CRS of at least 400 in order to be considered eligible. However since they had consistently been picking profiles of well under 400 for their FSSW (French Speaking Skilled Worker) and Skilled Workers with Job Offers category, they decided to do away with the requirement of CRS of 400 and instead indicated this to be as “determined by the Immigration Director for individual draw for each program”

Ontario also does not have a specific Occupation In Demand list and that means that all valid and eligible NOCs may be considered by OINP when sending their NOIs. However, this also means that there is no transparency in the program and everyone is always kept guessing as to who will receive the NOI, if and when they are sent out.

The first draw of the year 2019 happened on 11th January, when OINP sent out 38 NOIs to FSSW candidates.
Since there is no prior intimation or announcement of the draw date, one can never know when Ontario will conduct these draws.

*source www.ontario.ca

So imagine the surprise of people when they starting receiving the NOIs in their account from Ontario on the 14th January (EST). From what I understand based on the feedback received from several members in our Facebook group (www.facebook.com/groups/askkubeir), the range of the CRS that have received the NOIs has been from 439-448 and several different categories of NOCs have been successful in getting these. It is now understood that a total of 1493 NOIs were sent. WOW!!!

Some of the NOCs that were successful are 2171, 0124, 0121, 0125, 6311, 2121, 2151,1123 and the CRS range noticed was 439-448

So now comes the important question of should you proceed with this NOI which will come with an additional cost of CAD$1500 (OINP application fee), or should you wait for direct federal ITA from Express Entry considering that the last EE draw on the 10th January was at 449.

For people at CRS of 439 and lower its a no brainer. I say go for it right away. This is your CAD$1500 well spent. For people in the range of 440-441, it’s a thin line, especially if you are at 440.
Though 2018, saw several draws of 440-441-442, there is no saying these CRS scores will be drawn again soon. It may well be some time before we see 440 and will need a large number of ITAs issued for each draw and more frequent draws if we are to see 440-441 happening sooner or even if 440 barrier has to be breached again.

So bottom line, if you are at 439, grab this opportunity. In the consecutive OINP draws if you are at CRS of below 440 and get an NOI from OINP, just thank you beautiful stars and make a run to file your nomination application with Ontario.
Last year the lowest CRS that received NOIs under HCP was 433.
It may well hover around similar scores, who is to say. But if you get it and you are under 440, don’t think, just go for it.

For everyone else, we continue to be #foreverhopeful