Summary

Effective July 2, 2025, employers must submit applications for the approval of an employment position via the Employer Portal under the Employer Job Offer: Foreign Worker, International Student, and In-Demand Skills streams.

If you are an employer — applying for the approval of an employment position under one of these streams — before you submit your application to the OINP, you must:

  1. Register an account in the Employer Portal.
  2. Provide information about the employment position by submitting a job offer for the employee-applicant.

After you have submitted a job offer, the employee-applicant must register an expression of interest.

If the OINP selects the employee-applicant’s expression of interest, you will be notified via email and you may proceed with submitting the Application for Approval of an Employment Position.

Please refer to the Employer Portal User Guide for more details on creating job offers and submitting applications.

Important: When we assess the application, we may request additional supporting documents from you to validate information included in the Application for Approval of an Employment Position. Please note that these documents are not required up front and will only be requested post submission if needed. Please refer to the list of possible documents that may be requested in additional documents.

Application for the Approval of an Employment Position

You must submit the application for the approval of an employment position through the Employer Portal. Please refer to the Employer Portal User Guide for step-by-step instructions on how to fill out the application.

Submit your documentation

If the OINP selects the employee-applicant’s expression of interest, you will be notified via email.

You must submit your application and upload the mandatory documents through the Employer Portal within 14 calendar days of the issuance of the invitation to apply.

The following documents must be uploaded with your application:

  • signed job offer
  • consent form
  • If applicable:
    • employment letter
    • copies of job advertisements and recruitment efforts
    • Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)
    • collective agreements
    • Commercial Vehicle Operator’s Registration (CVOR) certificate

If other supporting documents are needed, we will contact you after the application has been submitted.

Make sure all your supporting documents are clear and legible. We will not accept documents that are blurry or illegible.

Your supporting documents must be uploaded using one of the accepted document formats:

  • .doc
  • docx
  • .xls
  • .xlsx
  • .ppt
  • .pptx
  • .pdf
  • .rtf
  • .txt
  • .jpeg
  • .bmp
  • .png
  • .gif
  • .tiff

File size limits

In most cases, the maximum file size is 10 MB per document.

Scan your documents at a lower resolution to reduce the size of your documents and allow for a faster upload. All pages of a specific document should be uploaded into one file (if the size limit permits).

Job offer

You must provide a copy of the original job offer that is signed and dated by you and the employee-applicant.

The job offer should:

  • be printed on business letterhead that shows your business address, telephone/fax numbers, email and website addresses
  • identify the responsible officer/supervisor and include their signature
  • be stamped with the business corporate seal (if applicable)
  • include the following information:
    • job title
    • NOC code
    • wage for the position being offered
    • duties and responsibilities
    • number of hours per week and number of weeks of work per year
    • number of days/weeks of vacation
    • workplace location
    • details of remote work, including location and frequency, if applicable
    • employment start date
    • an indication that the offer being made is for a full-time position of an indeterminate duration (no end date)
    • confirmation that the terms and conditions of the job offer are effective as of the date of nomination if the nominee is already working for you in the approved employment position. If the nominee is not, on the date that the nominee obtains a work permit and begins working for you in the approved employment position

If the original job offer is older than 6 months or is missing any of the information listed above, please provide a supplementary letter containing any missing information, that is signed and dated by you and the employee-applicant.

If the employee-applicant is already working in the position, please provide a supplementary letter confirming the employee-applicant is still employed by your company and any updates or changes to the position being offered. Please ensure this letter is signed and dated by both you and the employee-applicant.

Consent form

You must complete the consent form in ink and upload it to the application. For more information on how to upload the form, please refer to the Employer Portal User Guide.

By completing the consent form, you:

  • authorize the Canada Revenue Agency to share employer taxpayer information with the Ministry of Finance to:
    • validate the authenticity of the application
    • verify eligibility
  • acknowledge that the employer is subject to the Ontario Immigration Act, 2015, including site inspections

In cases of misrepresentation, the application may be refused, and the employer may be subject to administrative monetary penalties and/or prosecutions under the Act or the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Note that the consent form cannot be completed by the authorized representative.

Other documents (if applicable)

If applicable, you may also need to upload the following documents with your application:

  • A copy of your job advertisements, if you are required to demonstrate reasonable recruitment efforts (see Recruitment efforts documentation for more information).
  • A copy of your Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), if you have one for the same NOC code as the position being offered to the applicant.
  • A copy of the applicable section in your collective agreement that outlines wages, if the wage of the position offered to the applicant does not meet the low or median wage requirement but adheres to the wage requirements outlined in the collective agreement.

Transport truck driver positions

Please note, if you are seeking an approval of a NOC 73300 – Transport truck driver or NOC 73301 Bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators employment position, you must also demonstrate that your business has both:

  • a valid CVOR certificate, as defined in subsection 1 (1) of the Highway Traffic Act
  • a safety rating under that act of Excellent, Satisfactory or Satisfactory Unaudited

Representative’s declaration (if applicable)

If you have appointed a representative to the application, your representative must upload the signed declaration to the application. The declaration must be signed in ink.

Recruitment efforts documentation (Foreign Worker or In-Demand Skills streams only)

Some employers have to demonstrate that they made enough effort to recruit a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident for the position being offered to the applicant.

You may be asked to provide proof of recruitment efforts if the OINP applicant is:

  • currently living abroad
  • visiting Canada
  • working in a province or territory other than Ontario

You will not have to provide proof of recruitment if the applicant is currently authorized to work in Ontario, or you have a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) for the same NOC code and position being offered to the applicant. If you do have a LMIA, you may be asked to provide a copy.

Proof of recruitment efforts

To prove you tried to recruit a Canadian citizen or permanent resident prior to offering the position to the applicant, you may be asked to submit additional documents to demonstrate your advertising or recruitment methods after application submission, above and beyond the job advertisements that you must give the applicant to scan and upload with your application.

You should use a minimum of two advertising or recruitment methods, including:

  • a job bank advertisement with the Government of Canada’s Job Bank
  • print media (national or provincial/territorial newspapers, national journals, magazines with national coverage, specialized journals, professional association magazines, newsletters, etc.)
  • advertisement on general employment websites (workopolis.com, monster.ca, indeed.ca, LinkedIn Jobs, CareerBuilder.ca, Glassdoor.ca, Eluta.ca etc.)
  • advertisement on specialist websites dedicated to specific occupation profiles (accounting, marketing, biotechnology, education, engineering etc.)
  • posting on employer’s career website for internal and external candidates
  • demonstrated participation at job fairs

Your advertisement should be posted for at least four weeks prior to offering the position to the applicant, be accessible to the general public and include:

  • business operating name
  • business address
  • position title and duties
  • skill requirements which include education and/or work experience
  • wage (where a wage is posted, the median wage must be within the range)
  • location where the employee will work (city or town)
  • contact information: name, address, telephone number, email address
  • date posted and date advertisement will close (dd/mm/yyyy – dd/mm/yyyy)

Do not submit personal information about candidates to the OINP, such as resumes containing names, addresses, dates of birth, etc.

Contact us

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