On August 4, 2026, Ontario opened the Expression of Interest portal for the Ontario Workforce Priority stream — the wait is over, and every EOI from the old system is confirmed gone. Here is exactly what changed, who moves first, and how to avoid losing your first shot to a missing document.
It is real now. On August 4, 2026, Ontario's Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development opened the Expression of Interest portal for the Ontario Workforce Priority stream — the single stream that replaced eight OINP streams back on June 26. For more than five weeks, the rules were public and the door was shut: you could read the eligibility criteria and the full scoring grid, but you could not submit anything against them. That gap is closed. Ontario's own program updates page confirms it in one line: the EOI portal is open for TEER 0–3 candidates, TEER 4–5 candidates, and self-employed physicians alike.
What actually changed today
The practical shift is simple to state and easy to underestimate. Before August 4, the most prepared candidate in Ontario and the least prepared candidate in Ontario were in exactly the same position — neither could submit anything. As of today, that is no longer true. The candidates who spent the closure period getting their language results, credential assessments and employer conversations in order can move immediately. The candidates who waited to start preparing are now doing that work under a live, running clock instead of a quiet one.
Every day between now and when you are actually ready is a day a better-prepared candidate is already through the door.
The old pool is confirmed gone — not paused, not carried over
Ontario's update is explicit on this point, and it matters if you were sitting on an Expression of Interest from before June 26 that never drew an invitation. It has not been revived by the reopening. Ontario states plainly that EOIs and job offers registered under the former streams which never resulted in an invitation are being automatically withdrawn over the coming weeks as the platforms are updated, with a direct notice going to affected registrants, employers and representatives. There is nothing to check on, transfer, or reactivate — that route is closed, and a new Expression of Interest under the Ontario Workforce Priority stream is the only way back in.
- If you already have a submitted application from before the redesign, it is unaffected — Ontario has confirmed those continue to be assessed against the eligibility requirements in place when they were submitted
- If your old EOI never drew an invitation, it is being withdrawn automatically — no action saves it, and none is needed to let it go
- A new EOI under the Ontario Workforce Priority stream must be tied to a new job offer, freshly submitted by your employer in the Employer Portal — a pre-redesign job offer does not carry over either
Employers who registered before do not start from zero — but they are not finished either
One detail is easy to miss in the relief of the portal reopening: if your employer already had an account in the OINP Employer Portal from before June 26, that registration itself still stands and does not need to be redone. But that is the only part that carries over. Ontario is explicit that employers must still submit a new job offer and a new application for approval of an employment position to generate the job offer ID your Expression of Interest actually needs. An employer who assumes their old registration means they are ready to go is the single most common way a candidate loses their first weeks of a now-live window.
The clock is no longer theoretical
Every timeline that was previously a description of future rules is now a description of what is actually happening to real applicants this week. Once your employer submits a job offer, you have 30 calendar days to register your Expression of Interest against it. If invited, your employer has 14 calendar days to submit the position-approval application, and you then have 17 calendar days to submit your own. An Expression of Interest is valid for 12 months, after which it — and the job offer behind it — expires automatically. None of these numbers changed today; what changed is that they now start counting the moment your file moves, not on a hypothetical future date.
What to do in the next 48 hours
The portal being open is an opportunity, not a deadline in itself — but the candidates who convert it fastest are the ones who treat the next two days as the moment to finish preparation, not start it:
- Confirm with your employer today whether they already hold an Employer Portal account from before June 26 — if so, they still need to submit a brand-new job offer, not rely on the old registration
- Confirm your employer clears the eligibility bar: three years in active business, an Ontario location, and gross annual revenue of at least $1,000,000 in the GTA or $500,000 in other designated metro areas over the two most recent fiscal years (lower thresholds apply in rural communities under 150,000 population)
- Have your language test results in hand and confirm they are the correct accepted version — IELTS General Training, not Academic; CELPIP-General, not the LS variant; PTE Core, not Academic
- Confirm your Educational Credential Assessment was issued for immigration purposes specifically and is still within its five-year validity
- Decide now which pathway you fall under — TEER 0–3, TEER 0–3 skilled trades, TEER 4–5, or self-employed physician — since the minimum requirements differ meaningfully between them
- If your job offer location gives you any choice at all, weigh it against the regionalization scoring before your employer submits — a job outside Toronto is worth real points on the selection grid
None of these are new facts — they are the same requirements that were published on July 20. What changed is that acting on them now has an immediate payoff instead of a hypothetical one. For the complete points breakdown across all four scoring blocks, the exact eligibility minimums for each pathway, and the full employer-portal mechanics, our deep dive on the Ontario Workforce Priority scoring grid covers it in detail — this post is the news that the door is now open; that one is the map for what to do once you are through it.
The honest read
A portal reopening after five weeks closed will draw a rush, and a rush is exactly when avoidable mistakes get made — a job offer submitted with the wrong wage figure, a language test that is the wrong version of the right test, an employer whose registration looks ready but is not. The advantage today does not belong to whoever clicks fastest. It belongs to whoever was already finished preparing before the portal opened, and to whoever catches an avoidable error before it costs a 30-day window rather than after.
If your employer is ready to submit and you want a second set of eyes on your file before it goes in, we review these applications every week — get it checked before the clock starts, not after.
