Ontario Opens Provincial Immigration Path for Graduate Talent With 918 New OINP Invitations

By Tahani Elghazaly
Published April 22, 2026

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Ontario issued a fresh round of invitations on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, targeting graduate talent in a move that reinforces the province’s push to retain advanced-degree holders trained in Ontario. The draw included 918 invitations in total, with 674 issued under the Master’s Graduate stream and 244 under the PhD Graduate stream.

The selections were held as general draws in both streams. Ontario set the minimum score at 61 for Master’s Graduate candidates and 56 for PhD Graduate candidates, while limiting eligibility to profiles created between April 22, 2025 and April 20, 2026.

The draw matters because it shows Ontario is continuing to use its graduate pathways as a practical immigration route for highly educated candidates already inside the province. That approach also aligns with the province’s broader 2026 nomination capacity, after Ontario said it had received an allocation of 14,119 nominations from the federal government for this year.

For international students and recent graduates, the latest round sends a clear signal: Ontario’s Master’s and PhD streams remain among the most direct provincial pathways available to advanced-degree holders, even as score thresholds remain competitive. This is an editorial inference based on the structure of the draw and Ontario’s published 2026 program updates.