OINP Draws 2026: Tech, Healthcare, and What Score Thresholds Tell You

Ontario does not run one immigration draw — it runs several, targeting different streams, sectors, and regions. A tech draw operates entirely differently from a healthcare draw, and both differ from a regional employer round. Understanding which draws you are eligible for, what scores they require, and how frequently they run changes your strategy significantly.

How OINP Draws Work

Each draw pulls from Ontario's Expression of Interest (EOI) pool or the federal Express Entry pool, depending on the stream. Ontario sets the parameters — minimum score, targeted NOC codes, geographic restrictions — and issues Invitations to Apply (ITA) to eligible candidates who meet or exceed the threshold, ranked by score.

There are two types of draws:

General draws invite candidates across all eligible NOC codes within a stream, with a single score cut-off. These tend to have higher thresholds because the entire pool competes.

Targeted draws restrict eligibility to specific NOC codes. Because fewer candidates are in the eligible pool, thresholds tend to be lower. Healthcare and tech draws are almost always targeted.

OINP Tech Draws: Express Entry-Linked

Tech draws operate through the Human Capital Priorities (HCP) stream, which is tied to the federal Express Entry pool. Ontario scans for candidates with experience in specific technology-related NOC codes and issues Notifications of Interest (NOI) rather than traditional ITAs.

Frequently targeted tech NOC codes include:

• Software engineers (NOC 21231)
• Computer systems developers and programmers (NOC 21230)
• Cybersecurity specialists (NOC 21220)
• Database analysts and data administrators (NOC 21223)
• Computer and information systems managers (NOC 20012)

CRS thresholds for tech draws in 2025–2026 have typically ranged from 450 to 485. Unlike EOI-based draws where you compete on an Ontario-specific score, HCP draws require a competitive CRS score from your existing federal profile. Your Ontario EOI score does not apply here.

Tech draws are approximately bi-monthly. They do not follow a fixed calendar — draw dates depend on the provincial quota remaining and policy priorities.

Key strategic implication: Tech candidates in the GTA who cannot improve their EOI score due to the 0-point geographic penalty often find HCP the better route. There is no geographic penalty in the Express Entry pool.

OINP Healthcare Draws: Lowest Thresholds in the Program

Healthcare draws have attracted the most attention in 2026 because Ontario issued invitations at historically low score thresholds — as low as 33 points for certain physician occupations.

Why healthcare scores are so low: Targeted draws for a narrow NOC code mean the eligible pool is small. When Ontario needs to fill 200+ slots for registered nurses or physicians from a pool of perhaps 400 candidates, the score threshold falls to include almost everyone who is minimally eligible.

Priority healthcare NOC codes in 2026:

• Physicians and surgeons (NOC 31100, 31101, 31102)
• Registered nurses (NOC 31301)
• Licensed practical nurses (NOC 32101)
• Early Childhood Educators (NOC 42202) — not technically healthcare, but treated with similar urgency in 2026

Score thresholds from early 2026 draws:

• Physician draws: 33–38 points
• ECE draws: 36–39 points

A January 2026 policy expansion made self-employed physicians eligible. If you hold an OHIP billing number, you can now apply under the Foreign Worker stream even without a traditional employer-employee arrangement — an eligibility change that opened the door to a significant pool of candidates previously excluded.

For nurses specifically: If your occupation requires a mandatory provincial license in Ontario (Licensed Practical Nurse, for example), the two-year work experience requirement is waived once you hold that license. This dramatically lowers the practical eligibility bar.

Regional Employer Draws

Regional draws are separate from GTA draws and tend to run more frequently. They target candidates with job offers from employers located outside the Greater Toronto Area — communities like Thunder Bay, Sarnia-Lambton, Sudbury, and North Bay.

Score thresholds in regional draws are typically 5–15 points lower than equivalent GTA draws, reflecting the geographic scoring bonus (8–10 extra points) that regional candidates already receive.

In April 2026, Ontario issued over 2,000 invitations in regional employer rounds across the Foreign Worker, International Student, and In-Demand Skills streams in a single set of draws.

Masters and PhD Graduate Draws

Graduate stream draws tend to be infrequent but large when they occur. In April 2026, Ontario invited over 900 Masters and PhD graduates in a single draw. These draws compete separately from employer streams.

For the Masters stream, STEM and Health field candidates score 12 field-of-study points versus 0 for Arts and Humanities candidates. This means two candidates with identical language and education scores can face dramatically different draw thresholds depending on their discipline.

What Draw Results Tell You About Your Position

When Ontario publishes draw results, you get two useful pieces of data: the minimum score invited and the number of ITAs issued. These two numbers let you calculate your position in the queue.

If the minimum score was 45 and your score is 38, you are 7 points behind. Then you can calculate: which scoring factor can I realistically improve by 7+ points?

• Moving from a GTA employer to a regional employer: +7 points
• Documenting six months of tenure with your employer: up to +10 points
• Reaching CLB 8 vs CLB 7 on language: +2 points
• Taking a French test to qualify for the bilingual bonus: +10 points

Draw data is the diagnostic tool. Your EOI score is the variable you control.

The Ontario PNP guide at /ca/pnp-ontario/ includes draw history and a scoring worksheet to calculate your current position and identify your fastest path to an ITA — whether that is improving your score, targeting a different stream, or understanding when the next draw is likely to run.