The Government of Ontario suggested that significant changes be made to the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), by amending the Ontario Immigration Act, in April 2019. July 8, 2019, saw these changes take effect, after a period of consulting the public and other relevant parties.
The Provincial Nominee Program’s Ontario In-Demand Skills and Ontario Entrepreneur streams were among the streams that were mostly affected by these alterations. Provided below are the details:
In-Demand Skills Stream
The profession list for the In-Demand Skills Stream was extended. Three more occupations were added. These were home support workers (not including housekeepers and commercial and residential installers) and nurse aides (including orderlies as well as patient service associates). Transport truck drivers were also part of the added professions. To allow more applicants to respond to the OINP, the eligible work requirement was lowered to 9 months; from 12 months.
The Ontario Entrepreneur Stream
Several changes were made in this stream. Before the modifications were made to the Ontario Immigration Act, applicants needed a personal net worth of at least $1,500,000 for businesses based in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). After the changes, the amount was reduced to $800,000. For enterprises based outside the GTA, the amount changed from $800,000 to $400,000.
Also, applicants were allowed to have at most one foreign national as a business partner for application purposes. Due to the inability of the Corporate Stream to attract international corporations to Ontario, it was terminated.
