The Province of Ontario has revoked all its provincial pathways to permanent residence without putting into place any replacements, creating uncertainty for prospective applicants.
In keeping with scheduled legislative changes to Ontario’s provincial regulations at the end of May, authorities invalidated each of the previous immigration streams through which foreign nationals were able to qualify for nomination for permanent residence through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP).
After a OINP consultation in December, the province shared detailed proposals for replacement streams but still has not published what comes next. That consultation outlined four new pathways for permanent residence made up of two Employment Job Offer streams, a Priority Healthcare stream, and an Entrepreneur stream, but final eligibility criteria and operational details are unknown.
Ontario has confirmed that applications submitted before May 30 will continue to be assessed under the previous rules, and that job offer-based Expressions of Interest will continue to be accepted through the online system.
IAM Member Impact: No immediate impact is expected to import volumes to Canada, although news items such as this point to tightening immigration controls in some important traffic lanes.
Sources: CIC News Economic Times