Opportunities Ontario: About the Program

Ontario recognizes that employers play a critical role in our economic success. For many employers, newcomers to Ontario are a valuable source of skilled labour. If you are an Ontario employer having difficulty finding the workers you need, Opportunities Ontario may be the program for you.

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What is it?

Opportunities Ontario: Provincial Nominee Program is an immigration program through which Ontario nominates individuals and their families for permanent resident status based on a pre-approved job offer in the province. The Government of Ontario established Opportunities Ontario to help employers succeed in the global competition for talent. Opportunities Ontario will target 1,000 nominations in 2011.

How do employers participate?

This program allows employers to:

• • Apply for the approval of permanent, full-time positions to be filled by foreign nationals
  • Recruit foreign nationals to fill those positions.

Opportunities Ontario: Provincial Nominee Program is designed in part to assist employers who are having difficulty recruiting qualified, skilled workers in Ontario. Applications from employers who are seeking positions for foreign workers residing abroad, or foreign workers who are visiting Canada, will receive priority processing if those employers have tried to recruit Canadian citizens or permanent residents located in Ontario for those positions before applying to the program.

Approved employers can recruit foreign workers through the General Category and international students through the International Student Category.

How do investors participate?

The program allows investors to have key employees obtain permanent resident status.

Endorsed investors can recruit foreign workers through the General Category.

How do individuals participate?

DID YOU KNOW?

 

 

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Once they are recruited by an employer, individuals who meet all of the Opportunities Ontario requirements may be nominated by the province for permanent residence as Provincial Nominees. Nominated individuals must then apply to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). CIC then performs important admissibility checks for health and security in order to grant permanent residence to applicants. Nominees can also apply to CIC for a temporary work permit while their permanent residence application is being processed.

Applying for immigration can seem complicated when both the Provincial and Federal Governments play a role in the process. To learn more about the Province of Ontario’s role and the Government of Canada’s role in processing permanent residence applications for Provincial Nominees, visit the Nominees: What’s Next section of our website.

Important

This website provides details on Opportunities Ontario: Provincial Nominee Program. The Government of Ontario reserves the right to change any aspect of Opportunities Ontario: Provincial Nominee Program, including any time limits, nomination categories, eligibility criteria, distribution of nominations by category and supporting documentation requirements, at any time and without notice.