Ontario's New OINP Points Grid Is Live — Here Is Where Your Score Actually Comes From

The guessing phase is over. On July 20, 2026, Ontario published the full eligibility criteria and the complete selection grid for the Ontario Workforce Priority stream — the single stream that replaced eight OINP streams on June 26. Until now, candidates have been planning around a program whose rules were announced but whose scoring was not. That is no longer true. Every point value is public, which means for the first time you can calculate roughly where you stand and, more usefully, work out which points are still within reach. And there is a timing advantage here that will not last: the EOI system is currently closed to new Expressions of Interest, and Ontario says the e-Filing Portal is expected to reopen later this summer. The rules went public before the door opened — which means you can finish your preparation while everyone else is still reading.

That second part is where most of the value sits. A scoring grid is not just a measurement — it is a map of what the province is willing to pay for. Read it that way and some of the numbers are startling. There are roughly 130 points available across four blocks, and one of the largest single swings in the entire grid has nothing to do with your education, your language ability or your career. It depends only on which part of Ontario your job is in.

Where things actually stand right now

It is worth being precise about the current state, because Ontario's own pages can read as contradictory. The Expression of Interest system is closed to new EOIs. No further invitations will be issued under the eight former streams. The e-Filing Portal sign-in page is reachable, but Ontario states the portal is expected to reopen later this summer, and the program updates page is where that reopening will be announced. In short: you can read the rules today, and you cannot submit against them yet.

• If you already have a submitted application under the former OINP framework, it is safe — Ontario has confirmed those will be assessed against the eligibility requirements that were in place at the time you applied
• If you had an EOI in the old pool that never received an invitation, that route is finished — no further invitations will be issued under the former streams
• A new Expression of Interest under the Ontario Workforce Priority stream is only possible once the portal reopens, and it must be tied to a new job offer submitted by your employer

Block 1 — Employment and labour market (up to about 70 points)

This is by far the heaviest block, and it is built almost entirely around the job offer itself. Note how much weight sits on Ontario experience and on wage — two things that are often negotiable in ways candidates do not think to negotiate.

• Ontario work experience in the offered position — 24+ months: 18 · 13–24 months: 15 · 6–12 months: 12 · under 6 months or not working: 0
• If you have under 6 months in the offered position, general Ontario work experience scores instead — 24+ months: 12 · 13–24 months: 9 · 6–12 months: 6 · under 6 months: 0
• Hourly wage — $40+: 15 · $35–39.99: 12 · $30–34.99: 10 · $25–29.99: 8 · $20–24.99: 5 · under $20: 0
• Legal status in Canada — valid work permit: 10 · valid study permit: 5 · neither: 0
• NOC broad occupational category — category 3 (health): 10 · category 7 (trades and transport): 8 · category 2 (natural and applied sciences): 6 · categories 0, 1, 4, 8, 9: 4 · categories 5 and 6 (art, culture, sales and service): 2
• NOC TEER category — TEER 0 or 1: 9 · TEER 2 or 3: 6 · TEER 4 or 5: 0
• Canadian earnings history — $70,000+: 8 · $50,000–69,999: 6 · $30,000–49,999: 4 · under $30,000: 0
• Self-employed physicians score their own row for cumulative medical practice in Ontario — 24+ months: 18 · 13–24 months: 15 · 6–12 months: 12 · under 6 months: 0

Two things stand out immediately. First, the wage bands are cliffs, not slopes. The difference between an offer at $39.99 and one at $40.00 is three points for one cent — and the gap between $24.99 and $30.00 is five points. If your offer sits just under a threshold, that is a conversation worth having with your employer before the job offer is submitted, because once it is in the portal it cannot be edited. Second, a valid work permit is worth double a study permit and ten points more than nothing at all, which makes maintaining continuous status a scoring issue and not just a compliance one.

Block 2 — Language (up to 25 points)

Language is the second-largest block and, for most candidates, the cheapest points on the board. Nothing else on this grid can be improved as much in as little time by your own effort alone.

• Official language ability — CLB 9 or higher: 15 · CLB 8: 12 · CLB 7: 8 · CLB 6: 4 · CLB 5 or lower: 0
• Knowledge of official languages — both English and French at a minimum of CLB 6 each: 10 · one official language: 5

Look closely at the first row, because the curve is steep at the top. Moving from CLB 6 to CLB 7 is worth four points; CLB 7 to CLB 8 is another four; CLB 8 to CLB 9 is three more. In total, lifting yourself from CLB 6 to CLB 9 is worth eleven points — more than the entire TEER category factor, and achievable with preparation and a retest rather than a new job, a new degree or a move. And if you have any usable French at all, the bilingual bonus adds another five points over a monolingual profile. For anyone sitting mid-table, language is almost always the fastest route upward.

Block 3 — Education (up to 20 points)

Education splits into what you studied and where. The second half rewards Canadian credentials specifically, and it rewards having more than one.

• Highest level of education — doctorate, or a degree in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or optometry: 10 · master's degree: 8 · bachelor's degree, or a university certificate or diploma above bachelor level: 6 · Ontario College Graduate Certificate, university certificate below bachelor level, college or CEGEP diploma, or an apprenticeship or trades certificate: 5 · less than a college or trade certificate: 0
• Number of Canadian education credentials — more than one: 10 · one: 5 · none: 0

The Canadian credentials row deserves attention because it is worth as much as a doctorate is in the row above it. Two Canadian credentials score 10 points — the same as the highest possible academic attainment anywhere in the world. For candidates who studied in Ontario and have been weighing a second short Canadian credential, this row changes that calculation considerably. It also means a bachelor's degree earned in Canada plus a Canadian college certificate can outscore a foreign master's degree on this block.

Block 4 — Regionalization (up to 15 points), and the number most people will ignore

This is the block to read twice. It scores nothing about you at all — only the location of the job offer, or for physicians, the practice address:

• Northern Ontario: 15
• Eastern Ontario: 10
• Central Ontario, outside the Greater Toronto Area: 10
• Southwestern Ontario: 10
• Inside the GTA but outside Toronto: 5
• Toronto: 0

Fifteen points is more than the entire education block is worth for most people, and more than the gap between CLB 6 and CLB 9. It is available for doing nothing more than working somewhere other than Toronto. And it compounds: Ontario has also set lower employer revenue thresholds for rural communities — census divisions under 150,000 population — so a smaller employer outside the major centres both qualifies more easily and delivers you more points than the identical employer downtown. If you have any flexibility at all about where in Ontario you work, this is the single highest-return decision available to you.

What this means in practice: two candidates, one job

Consider two nurses with the same NOC code and the same employer group. Both are in health occupations, so both take the top broad-category band. One works in downtown Toronto at $38 an hour with eight months in the role, a bachelor's degree from abroad, CLB 7 English and a work permit. The other took a post in Northern Ontario at $41 an hour, has been there fourteen months, holds a Canadian college certificate alongside her degree, and tested at CLB 9. Nothing separates them professionally. On the grid, the second candidate is ahead on wage, on Ontario experience, on language, on Canadian credentials and on region — a gap of well over thirty points assembled entirely from decisions rather than credentials. That is what a published grid lets you see, and it is why reading it before you commit to an offer matters more than optimising your file afterwards.

Your employer moves first — and the portal is unforgiving

None of this starts with you. Under the new stream the employer registers in the OINP Employer Portal and submits the job offer; only then can you register an Expression of Interest against it. The portal rules published alongside the criteria contain several traps worth knowing before your employer logs in:

• When the portal reopens, expect volume. Ontario runs a queue system at busy times — if you land in it, stay on the page, because refreshing, reloading or clicking any external link loses your position and puts you at the back
• Do not use a phone or tablet. Ontario explicitly warns against mobile devices when accessing the e-Filing Portal — use a desktop browser
• Only an authorised signing officer — someone with legal authority to bind the business — can complete registration. Administrative staff cannot do it, which is the most common reason employer registration stalls
• One account per employer, keyed to the CRA business number. Franchisors and franchisees are treated as separate employers
• Employer registration information cannot be modified after submission, so it must be right the first time
• A submitted job offer cannot be edited — correcting an error means withdrawing it and starting again, which resets your timeline
• The signing officer can add up to two additional signing officers, which is worth doing for redundancy before a 14-day clock is running
• The job must be permanent — no end date — and full-time, defined as at least 30 hours per week and 1,560 hours per year

Your employer also has to clear the eligibility bar itself: at least three years in active business, premises in Ontario, and gross annual revenue of at least $1,000,000 in each of the two most recently completed fiscal years for jobs in the Greater Toronto Area, or $500,000 for jobs in other designated Census Metropolitan Areas. Rural communities under 150,000 population get lower thresholds. Minimum employee counts apply and vary by location. If your employer cannot meet these, no amount of personal preparation rescues the file — which is why this is the first conversation to have, not the last.

The clocks, and the one that surprises people

The timelines are short, sequential and employer-triggered. You do not control when they start and you cannot pause them to go and collect a document:

• You have 30 calendar days from your employer submitting the job offer to register your Expression of Interest against it
• An EOI is valid for 12 months — and when it expires, the associated job offer is automatically withdrawn along with it
• If you are invited, your employer has 14 calendar days to submit the application for approval of the employment position, or the application is withdrawn
• You then have 17 calendar days to submit your own application
• Once nominated, you have six months to file your permanent residence application with IRCC

The twelve-month EOI expiry is the one that catches people. It is not a passive queue you can sit in indefinitely — if you are not selected within the year, both your EOI and the job offer behind it lapse, and your employer has to start the submission over. Ask yourself now whether the job offer you are counting on will still be on the table in eleven months, because the system assumes it might not be.

Which pathway applies to you

Three pathways, three different bars. The scoring grid is the same, but the minimum requirements to get onto it are not:

• TEER 0–3, outside the skilled trades — CLB 6 in all four abilities, a post-secondary credential of at least one year or an equivalent assessment, and either six months of consecutive full-time experience in the offered position within the last 12 months, three months if you are a recent Ontario graduate, or two years of cumulative full-time experience within the last five years
• TEER 0–3, skilled trades — CLB 5 in all four abilities and a Canadian secondary school diploma or equivalent
• TEER 4–5 — CLB 4 in all four abilities, a secondary school diploma or equivalent, and at least nine months of cumulative paid full-time experience within the last two years
• Self-employed physicians — registration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and OHIP billing privileges. This pathway requires no job offer and bypasses the work experience and education minimums entirely

Note the asymmetry between the minimums and the grid. TEER 4–5 candidates can qualify at CLB 4, but the grid pays nothing below CLB 6 and nothing for TEER 4 or 5 at all. Meeting the minimum gets you into the pool; it does not get you an invitation. If you are entering through the lower-threshold pathways, the points you can realistically compete on are language, Ontario experience, wage and region — which makes each of them disproportionately worth pursuing.

What to do this week

The rules are published, which means the preparation is no longer speculative. Work through this now rather than when a 30-day clock is running:

• Score yourself honestly against all four blocks and write the number down — you cannot improve what you have not measured
• Identify your two cheapest available points and start on them today; for most people that is a language retest and a wage conversation
• Confirm your employer is eligible on revenue, operating history and location, and that a signing officer is ready to register
• Check whether your offer sits just below a wage band threshold — a small adjustment can be worth three to five points
• Compare your offer location against the regionalization table before you sign anything
• Get valid language results and, where needed, an educational credential assessment issued for immigration purposes in hand now
• Assemble employment reference letters with duties, hours, dates, wage and signatory details for every period you will claim
• Confirm your NOC code against your actual duties, not your job title — use our NOC finder
• If you are TEER 0–3, build or refresh your federal Express Entry profile so a nomination can convert into 600 CRS points immediately

The honest summary

A published scoring grid is a gift, and most candidates will waste it. It converts an opaque process into an arithmetic one: you can now see exactly what Ontario values, exactly what it will pay, and exactly which of those things you are still able to change. The candidates who benefit will be the ones who treat it as a planning document rather than a report card — who check the regionalization table before accepting an offer, who negotiate a wage across a band threshold before the job offer is submitted and locked, and who book the language retest while there is still time for the result to matter. Everyone else will calculate their score, find it disappointing, and wait. For deeper background on how this system replaced the old one, see our OINP overhaul deep dive and our breakdown of the three pathways.