The Ontario PhD Graduate stream gives international students who have completed a doctoral programme at an eligible Ontario university the opportunity to immigrate permanently to Ontario without needing a job offer.
Candidates successfully nominated under the PhD Graduate stream of theOntario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP)may apply for Canadian permanent resident status withImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Eligible PhD graduates do not need a job offer in order to apply.
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OINP PhD Graduate stream requirements
To be eligible for the OINP PhD Graduate stream, an individual must:
- Have completed all the requirements for a PhD degree from an eligible Ontario university, with at least 2 years of the degree requirements completed while living and studying legally in Ontario;
- Have lived legally in Ontario for at least 12 of the 24 months before the date of application;
- Candidates will need to provide documents showing their full name and Ontario address to prove that they meet this requirement. Examples include telephone bills, vehicle insurance, electricity or energy bills and tenancy agreements.
- Have sufficient funds or income to cover settlement costs for themselves and their dependent family members (whether or not those family members are accompanying them). Prospective candidates can determine thesettlement funds requiredaccording to family size. These amounts are updated annually by the federal government.
- Dependent family members include: a spouse or common-law partner, children under the age of 22 and their children.
- Apply within two years of the date the PhD degree was issued;
- Intend to live and work in Ontario;
- Hold legal status (for example a study permit, work permit or visitor record) if living in Canada at the time of application.
- The OINP accepts applications from prospective candidates who are onmaintained statusstatus at the time of application.
Settlement funds
Prospective candidates for the OINP PhD Graduate stream can demonstrate that they have sufficient funds to establish themselves economically in Canada through one or a combination of the following:
- Funds shown by the balance in bank statements, or account statements showing other investments such as unlocked fixed deposits, mutual funds and similar holdings;
- Annual income from ongoing employment in Ontario;
- A job offer in Ontario.
If a candidate uses employment or a job offer in Ontario to meet the settlement funds requirement, they must include an employment contract or job offer letter setting out the position, hours of work and salary. If already working in Ontario, the candidate must provide their two most recent pay slips as financial evidence.
Ties to Ontario
Although prospective candidates for the PhD Graduate stream do not need to be resident in the province at the time of application, all candidates must intend to reside in Ontario.
Prospective candidates for the PhD Graduate stream can demonstrate their ties to Ontario by listing their connections to the province, including:
- Current and/or previous employment in Ontario;
- Job offers, or jobs applied or interviewed for, in Ontario;
- Studies in Ontario;
- Volunteer work in Ontario;
- A tenancy agreement in Ontario or property ownership;
- Professional networks and relationships;
- Family relationships;
- Social or personal relationships;
- Previous visits to Ontario.
Application deadline
The candidate’s degree must have been issued within the two years before the date of application to the OINP. For example, if the degree was issued on 1 June 2017, an eligible graduate must apply before 1 June 2019. If the degree has not yet been issued, the candidate may use the date given in an official letter from the academic institution stating when the degree will be issued.
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The application process
Before applying
Before applying, the OINP recommends that prospective candidates review the eligibility criteria and the document list, and make sure the application is complete. All documents uploaded to Ontario’s electronic application portal must be clear and legible.
The OINP may request further documents from PhD Graduate stream candidates while the application is being processed.
Applying
Applying to the PhD Graduate stream online through the OINP’s electronic application portal can take around two hours to complete.
Once the application registration has been submitted through the OINP’s online system, the candidate has 14 calendar days to complete and submit the application, failing which the registration expires and is cancelled. The OINP recommends that candidates complete the application before submitting payment. Once the application has been submitted to the OINP, the candidate will not be able to change any of its contents.
Candidates are responsible for translating and notarising any supporting document that is not in English or French. It is the candidate’s responsibility to find a translator certified by the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario (ATIO) and/or to notarise documents translated by a translator who is not ATIO-certified.
If a candidate in Ontario is unable to find an ATIO-certified translator, the translation must be notarised. A letter explaining the reasons and the efforts made to find a certified translator must be attached to the application.
If applying from outside Ontario, translations must be notarised. If a translation is considered inadequate, the OINP may require the candidate to obtain one from an ATIO-certified translator. Translations produced by the candidate, their representative, or anyone with a personal relationship to the candidate will not be accepted, even where those individuals are themselves certified translators.
After applying
If the OINP considers an application incomplete, individuals wishing to apply to the OINP PhD Graduate stream will have to submit a new application. The OINP may consider an application incomplete if inaccurate supporting documents are provided, or if documents requiring translation are not certified or notarised.
Candidates who believe that an OINP decision contains an error may request an internal review of the application within 30 calendar days of receiving notice of the decision (if resident in Canada), or within 60 calendar days if resident abroad. The request must not include any evidence that was not submitted to the programme before the decision was made, unless that evidence was not reasonably available at the time of application. The OINP’s internal review decision is final.
If the application is successful, the candidate will be issued a Nomination Letter (Nomination Approval Letter) and a Nomination Certificate (OINP Nomination Certificate).
Nomination
The next step after receiving a nomination from the OINP is to apply to IRCC for Canadian permanent residence within six (6) months of being nominated by the OINP. Candidates must include copies of both the Nomination Letter and the OINP Nomination Certificate with their permanent residence application to IRCC.
The OINP states that a nomination does not guarantee approval of a Canadian permanent residence application with IRCC. The OINP requires nominees to continue to demonstrate, on reasonable grounds, their intention to reside in Ontario.
Although nominations are valid for six months, a nominee may request an extension of the Nomination Certificate if the certificate is no longer valid and:
- IRCC has returned the permanent residence application as incomplete, requiring a new application to be submitted;
- The nominee has experienced delays in obtaining supporting documents for the permanent residence application (for example, police clearance certificates) and has not yet applied to IRCC.
The OINP has a separate immigration stream for international students holding a master’s degree from an eligible Ontario university. Read about theOntario Masters Graduate stream.
Who is not eligible to apply to the PhD Graduate stream?
The following individuals are not eligible to apply under the Ontario PhD Graduate stream:
- Individuals who have not completed a PhD degree. The OINP will not accept applications from international students in the final term of their programme of study. Candidates must have met all the degree requirements at the time of application.
- Individuals who completed their PhD degree more than two years ago.
- Individuals who have received a grant, scholarship or funding that requires them to return to their home country or another jurisdiction (another Canadian province or territory, or another country) after completing their programme of study (where those obligations have not yet been fulfilled).
- Individuals currently living in Canada without legal status.
Eligible Ontario universities
To apply to the PhD Graduate stream, the PhD degree must have been completed at one of the following universities:
- Brock University
- Carleton University
- Dominican University College
- Lakehead University
- Laurentian University
- McMaster University
- Nipissing University
- Queen’s University
- Royal Military College of Canada
- Ryerson University (Toronto Metropolitan University)
- Saint Paul University (Federated with the University of Ottawa)
- St. Jerome’s University (Federated with the University of Waterloo)
- Trent University
- University of Guelph
- University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Tech University)
- University of Ottawa
- University of St. Michael’s College (Federated with the University of Toronto)
- University of Toronto
- University of Trinity College (Federated with the University of Toronto)
- University of Waterloo
- University of Windsor
- Victoria University (Federated with the University of Toronto)
- Western University
- Wilfrid Laurier University
- York University
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