What Ontario asks of you
Ontario assesses your business as a separate application from your candidate's, and it can refuse yours while theirs is perfectly sound. You register in the Employer Portal, you submit a job offer that puts the candidate into the pool, and if they are invited you apply for approval of that specific employment position inside fourteen days. Behind that sit tests about you rather than about them, being three years in business, premises in Ontario, a revenue threshold and a headcount of citizens and permanent residents set by where the work is, no outstanding employment standards or health and safety orders, enough full time employees to support the number of applications you intend to make in the calendar year, and, where the director determines it is necessary, evidence that you tried to hire domestically first.
Everything you were told before the summer describes a program that no longer exists
Ontario closed all eight of its nominee streams in June 2026 and replaced them with a single stream, the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, carrying three pathways. Its expression of interest system reopened on 4 August 2026. An employer already registered in the portal does not have to register again, but must submit a new job offer and a new application for approval of an employment position, because expressions of interest that had not produced an invitation were withdrawn automatically and the job offers registered with them went too.
Ontario has published that three further streams are expected later this year, and we could not source what they will contain. The dates and the transitional rule are set out on the Ontario worker page.
Which pathways need you, and how much
One stream, three pathways. Two of them are built entirely on your job offer. The third has no employer in it at all.
| Pathway | What you provide | How exposed you are |
|---|---|---|
| TEER 0 to 3 | Registration, a full time permanent job offer, approval of the employment position, and recruitment evidence where the candidate is outside Canada or working outside Ontario | High. Nothing exists until you submit the job offer and nothing completes until your approval is granted |
| TEER 4 to 5 | The same, and the candidate must already have nine months in the exact position with you | High, and it is closed to someone who has never worked in Ontario, so in practice this is a route for keeping the people you already have |
| Self employed physicians | Nothing. There is no employer and no job offer | None. A physician who says they need a job offer for this pathway is describing a different one |
Ontario's own employer guide states that its content does not apply where the foreign worker is applying as a self employed physician.
The TEER 4 to 5 pathway is worth knowing about even though it is narrow. Very few permanent residence routes in Canada reach those occupations at all. This one does, but only for someone who has already worked for you in that exact position for nine months while lawfully residing and working in Ontario, and a nomination through it cannot be attached to a federal Express Entry profile. It is a retention tool, not a recruitment one.
The job offer, and the wage
These are set out in section 4 of Ontario Regulation 422/17 and repeated in Ontario's employer guide. They are checked against the signed offer you upload.
- Full time and permanent. At least 1,560 hours a year and at least 30 hours of paid work a week, with no end date. Seasonal and contract positions are ineligible and there is no way around that.
- Any occupation, at any TEER level from 0 to 5. There is no occupation list for this stream and the job can be anywhere in Ontario.
- The wage at or above the median wage level. For the occupation and the employment region where the employee will work or report to work, from the federal Job Bank wage report. A recent Ontario graduate with an offer at TEER 0 to 3 needs only the low wage level.
- Base pay only. Piece work, bonuses, commissions, vacation pay and non financial compensation are not part of the offered wage. You may pay them on top, but they will not lift a base wage below the required level, which is how a generous package still fails.
- A second wage test if the person already works for you. The offered wage must be at least what you currently pay them in that position as well as meeting the required level, so an internal file cannot be built on a wage that has been held down.
- Urgently necessary, and not touching a labour dispute. The position must align with your existing activities and be needed on a priority basis. Where the job is covered by a collective agreement the wage levels do not apply.
- Any licence the work requires. Held from the appropriate regulatory body at submission and throughout the nomination period.
The tests applied to your business
These are about you, they are measured at the date you apply, and they are the reason to start early. All three vary with where the employee will work or report to work.
| Requirement | Greater Toronto Area | Listed census divisions | Everywhere else in Ontario |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross annual revenue | $1,000,000 in the most recently completed fiscal year | $500,000 in the most recently completed fiscal year | $250,000 in each of the last two completed fiscal years |
| Full time employees who are citizens or permanent residents, at that location | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Enough full time employees to support the number of applications you intend to make in one calendar year | A separate test from the five above, applied on the same headcount | A separate test from the three above, applied on the same headcount | A separate test from the three above, applied on the same headcount |
| Time in business | Active for at least 3 years before applying | Active for at least 3 years | Active for at least 3 years |
The Greater Toronto Area means the City of Toronto and the Durham, Halton, Peel and York regions. The listed census divisions are Ottawa, Waterloo, Hamilton, Simcoe, Middlesex, Niagara, Essex, Wellington, Greater Sudbury, Frontenac, Brant, Peterborough, Hastings and Thunder Bay District. A full time employee is one working at least 30 hours a week, and where you run a mobile workforce the count includes both those who work at the location and those who report to it.
- Headcount also limits how many candidates you can put forward in a year. The Ontario Workforce Priority stream employer checklist, updated 11 August 2026, lists among the things Ontario may ask you to prove that your business has enough full time employees to submit one or more applications to the OINP in the same calendar year, and it repeats the point under its documents heading. Meeting the five or the three is therefore not the end of it. An employer with several candidates may not be able to put all of them forward in one year, so decide the order before you start rather than after a refusal.
- Premises in Ontario where the employee will work. Where they work at more than one location, the location they report to is where their immediate supervisor works or where the office issuing their assignments is.
- No outstanding orders. Under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 or the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- Truck and bus operators need a safety rating. For NOC 73300 and 73301, a valid CVOR certificate rated Excellent or Satisfactory, evidenced by a CVOR Abstract at Level 1.
- The Ontario Public Service cannot be the employer. Applications naming it or an OPS entity are not accepted. Other government agencies and corporations not staffed by OPS employees are separate legal entities and may qualify, so a body in the wider public sector should settle its status first.
One trap in pairing the cheapest revenue test with the best regional score. Greater Sudbury and Thunder Bay District are Northern Ontario for the candidate's regional scoring factor, which is the highest band. They are also on the list of census divisions carrying the $500,000 revenue threshold rather than the $250,000 one. The best score and the lowest employer test are not always in the same place.
The recruitment you have to be able to show
Whether you have to show recruitment at all is for the director to decide. Where it is required it is measured against what Ontario publishes, not against what looks reasonable.
Ontario's three sources are pitched differently, and the regulation governs
The regulation makes recruitment conditional. Paragraph 11 of subsection 4 (1) reads that, if the director determines it is necessary, the employer must have made reasonable but unsuccessful efforts to fill the position with a Canadian citizen or permanent resident prior to offering the position to the applicant.
The employer guide, updated 10 August 2026, is drafted more firmly, saying you must demonstrate that reasonable efforts were made to recruit a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident prior to offering the position, unless the employee is already authorised to work in Ontario or you have a positive labour market impact assessment for the same occupation code and position. The employer checklist, updated 11 August 2026, is more guarded again, saying that some employers have to demonstrate that they made enough effort, and that you may be asked to provide proof if the employee is living abroad, visiting Canada, or working in a province or territory other than Ontario.
The regulation is the instrument and it governs, so recruitment is a requirement the director may impose rather than one that applies to every file. Two things follow. If the candidate is already authorised to work in Ontario, or you hold a positive assessment for the same occupation code and position, the checklist and the guide agree you will not be asked. Otherwise, and particularly where the candidate is outside Canada or working outside Ontario, build the file to the standard below, because you may be asked for it and there is no way to build it after the offer has been made.
- At least two advertising or recruitment methods. A Job Bank advertisement, print media, general or specialist employment websites, a posting on your own careers page, or demonstrated participation at job fairs.
- At least four weeks of posting before the offer. Advertisements should be posted for at least four weeks before the position is offered, and be accessible to the general public.
- What each advertisement must contain. Your operating name and business address, the title and duties, the skill requirements, the wage where one is posted and it must be at the required level, the city or town of work, contact details, and the posted and closing dates.
- Not through your immigration representative. Ontario states that recruitment carried out by one is not reasonable, because of the financial interest in it failing, and that an application indicating it will be refused. Agencies, headhunters and human resources consultants are fine.
Ontario drafts the two methods and the four weeks as a should rather than a must. They are still what recruitment is measured against, so we treat them as requirements.
The equity restriction, stated precisely
Worth its own section because it is easy to state loosely and expensive to get wrong, and because it sits in the criteria for both job offer pathways rather than in the employer guide.
What the regulation requires
Neither the applicant nor any of the applicant's family members hold or have held equity in the employer's business, either directly or indirectly, unless it was obtained as part of their remuneration as an employee and the total amount of equity held by the applicant and their family members is less than 10 per cent of the equity in the employer's business.
Two conditions, and both must hold. The equity must have come as employee remuneration, and the combined family total must be under 10 per cent. Equity acquired any other way, at any size, is disqualifying, including a single share bought at incorporation.
- It is less than 10 per cent, not up to 10 per cent. A holding of exactly 10 per cent does not satisfy the criterion.
- It is a combined total. The applicant's holding and every family member's holding are added together, so four family members at 3 per cent each fail while one at 9 per cent passes.
- It catches equity held in the past. The wording is hold or have held. Disposing of a shareholding before applying does not cure it.
- Directly or indirectly. A holding through a holding company, a trust or another structure counts.
- Family member has a defined meaning here, and it is wider than the portal's shorthand. Section 1 of O. Reg. 422/17 gives family member the same meaning as in subsection 1 (3) of the federal Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, being the spouse or common-law partner, a dependent child of the person or of their spouse or common-law partner, and a dependent child of such a dependent child. Dependent child in those Regulations reaches a child of 22 or over who has depended substantially on the parent's financial support since before turning 22 and is unable to be financially self-supporting because of a physical or mental condition. Ontario's Employer Portal guidance describes family member more shortly as the spouse, common-law partner and children under 22, including their children. Where the two differ the regulation governs, so an adult dependent child in that situation is inside the equity restriction and their holding counts towards the combined family total.
The portal asks your signing officer to confirm whether the employee or their family hold or have held equity, and to state the total percentage. Where a key employee has shares as part of a package, work the number out before you register the job offer rather than at the point of declaring it.
This site previously stated the rule more loosely than the regulation does. It was corrected on 20 August 2026 and is set out above in the regulation's own terms.
The clock, and where it runs against you
| Step | Who acts | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Register the business and submit the job offer | Your signing officer | Before anything else, and required even where the employee already holds the position. Your candidate cannot register without it |
| Register the expression of interest | Your candidate | 30 calendar days from the date you submitted the job offer. Miss it and the offer expires and you must submit a new one |
| Apply for approval of the employment position | You | 14 calendar days from the date the invitation to apply was issued. Miss it and their application is withdrawn |
| Submit the application and pay | Your candidate | 17 calendar days from the same date, and they cannot submit until you have |
Ontario states all of these in calendar days. A nomination is then used within 6 months to apply federally for permanent residence.
Fourteen days of employer inaction ends the file, and your candidate cannot rescue it. Their own clock does not pause while they wait for you. Identify the signing officer, assemble the documents and diarise the fortnight before the invitation arrives. We have seen this lost to a holiday.
Where these files actually fail
Rarely on the candidate's eligibility. Usually on the employer side, and usually on something that was decided casually months earlier.
- The fourteen days. Comfortably the most common. It is nobody's job until it is nobody's job.
- Equity given to a key employee. See above. This is the one that kills senior hires and founding staff.
- A wage that clears the package test and fails the base pay test. Because bonuses and commissions are excluded.
- Recruitment run by the immigration representative. Ontario says this results in refusal.
- The revenue year. Measured against your most recently completed fiscal year, or the last two in the lowest tier, so a strong current year does not help.
- Headcount at the wrong location. The five or three employees have to work at, or report to, the location where your candidate will work.
- Planning more files in one year than your headcount supports. Ontario's employer checklist asks separately whether you have enough full time employees to submit one or more applications in the same calendar year, so clearing the five or the three does not tell you how many candidates you can put forward.
- Occupation chosen for convenience. Classification drives the wage floor, the language and education requirements, the experience route and whether Express Entry is available at all, and it is defined by the duties rather than the title on your letterhead.
None of these are hard to get right at the start, and all of them are expensive once a submission has been made. More on why the classification distinction decides cases.
What it costs, and who pays
| Cost | Amount | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Registration, the job offer, and the application for approval of an employment position | No fee charged by Ontario | Not applicable |
| Registering an expression of interest | Free | The candidate |
| Nomination application | $1,500 outside the Greater Toronto Area, $2,000 inside it, set by where the job or the practice is | The candidate. Refunded if returned as incomplete or withdrawn before processing begins, and not refunded once processing starts, including on a refusal |
| Employer compliance fee, where a work permit is supported | $230 through the federal Employer Portal, remitted and repaid under s. 303.1(6) if the permit is refused or if you withdraw the offer and request a remission before it issues | You, and it cannot lawfully be recovered from the worker. Nor can your recruitment costs |
Employers frequently cover the candidate's fees, which is workable and common. Who pays is a separate question from who is represented, and it belongs in the engagement terms rather than being left implicit.
After the approval, which is where employers stop paying attention
The approval is conditional and Ontario verifies it afterwards, through its Post-Nomination Verification Unit.
- You must employ the nominee in the approved position on the approved terms. From the date of nomination, or from the date they obtain a work permit and start, until permanent residence is granted or refused.
- Report any change immediately. Title, duties, wage, hours or term. A promotion needs a revised job offer signed by both of you.
- If the employment ends, the nomination can go with it. Whoever ended it.
- A refusal can be reviewed internally. Within 30 days, identifying an error in the decision. Information you simply left out will not be considered.
Federal compliance runs alongside this with its own inspections and penalties. What that requires.