Canada PR for Australians: Express Entry and OINP

Your working holiday is a two-year clock. If you want to stay, PR planning starts in month one, not month twenty.

The short version

The main route for Australians already in Toronto is the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) inside Express Entry. You need at least one year (1,560 hours) of skilled paid work in Canada in the last three years [1].
You're ranked by the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). From 3 November 2026, IRCC changed how Canadian work experience and job offers score, so older cut-off scores are only a rough guide [2].
Australians still need an approved English test and an Educational Credential Assessment for their degree to score education points [3][4].
Ontario scrapped its old nominee streams in June 2026. The new Ontario Workforce Priority stream is employer-driven [5].
The biggest risk is timing: an IEC permit that runs out before your PR application is in. Plan backwards from your expiry date.

How the pieces fit together

Canada's skilled PR system has two layers. Express Entry is the federal pool. You create a profile, get a CRS score, and IRCC invites the top-ranked people in regular rounds. Provincial programs, like the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), can nominate people, which makes a nominated candidate far more likely to be invited.

Route	Who it suits	Job offer needed?	Key requirement
Express Entry: Canadian Experience Class	IEC holders with a year of skilled work in Canada	No	1,560 hours in TEER 0–3 jobs in the last 3 years [1]
Express Entry: Federal Skilled Worker	Skilled Aussies still in Australia or new to Canada	Not always	Skilled work abroad plus a points test
OINP: Ontario Workforce Priority (TEER 0–3)	Workers with a permanent full-time Ontario offer	Yes	Experience with the employer or in the occupation, CLB 6, a post-secondary credential [5]
OINP: Ontario Workforce Priority (TEER 4–5)	Lower-skilled roles with a committed employer	Yes	9 months with the employer in the last 2 years, CLB 4 [5]

This guide doesn't cover the IEC application itself. For that, see our working holiday and work permits guide.

The Canadian Experience Class in detail

For most Australians in Toronto, CEC is the obvious path. The rules [1]:

At least one year of skilled work in Canada, which means 1,560 hours in the three years before you apply. Full-time counts up to 30 hours a week, so 12 months of a full-time job does it. Part-time works too, for example 15 hours a week over 24 months.
TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 jobs only. That's management, professional, technical and skilled trade roles in Canada's National Occupational Classification. You must have done the duties in the NOC description, not just held the title.
Paid work while you were authorised to work. Your IEC open work permit counts. Volunteering, unpaid internships and self-employment don't [1].
Remote work for an Australian employer won't count. IRCC only counts remote work if you were in Canada working for a Canadian employer [1].
An approved language test meeting the minimum in all four abilities [1].
No education requirement for CEC, but education adds points [1].
You must plan to live outside Quebec [1].

The trap Aussies fall into

Twelve months on a bar or café roster is a great time. It's worth nothing for CEC, because those jobs are TEER 4 or 5. If you want PR, get into a skilled role as early as you can in your IEC stay. See our guide to job hunting in Toronto for how to make that jump.

CRS points and how Australians score

Your CRS score decides if you get an invitation. For a single applicant, IRCC's grid includes [2]:

Age: points peak between 20 and 29.
Education: a bachelor's degree or other three-year-plus program earns 120 points for a single applicant, if it's assessed.
Language: CLB 9 in an ability earns 31 points and CLB 10 or above earns 34, per ability, up to 136.
Labour Market Integration (new from 3 November 2026): up to 150 points for a single applicant. These come from either Canadian work experience or a high-wage job offer, not both. One year of Canadian work is worth 40 points, rising to 80 for five years, with up to 70 more for high-wage occupations. Job offers score 50, 70 or 100 points depending on whether the wage is 1.3, 1.5 or 2 times the occupation's median [2].
Extras: a provincial nomination adds 600, a brother or sister in Canada who's a citizen or PR adds 15, and strong French adds up to 50 [2].

IRCC also dropped the LMIA requirement for Express Entry job offers from 3 November 2026, and said it was recalculating existing profiles, which could take up to two weeks with rounds paused meanwhile [2].

What recent scores looked like

Before the change, CEC rounds in 2026 had cut-offs between about 507 and 523, per CIC News's tally of IRCC's draws [7]. Healthcare, trades and French-language category rounds had lower cut-offs [7]. Treat these as history, not a target. The new scoring may shift them in either direction.

Australian-specific points

Get an ECA for your Australian degree. Foreign credentials only score if they're complete and assessed by a designated body: World Education Services, the University of Toronto's Comparative Education Service, ICAS, IQAS or ICES [4]. The report must be less than five years old when you create your profile and when you apply [4].
Sit the English test anyway. IRCC accepts CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training or PTE Core [3]. It doesn't list an exemption for native speakers, so Australians test like everyone else. Results must be under two years old at profile and application [3]. Go for CLB 9 or 10: the jump from 7 to 9 is often the cheapest points you'll ever earn.
Order police checks early. You'll need them from Australia and any other country where you've lived for long enough to be listed. An AFP National Police Check takes time to come through from overseas.
Keep payslips and a reference letter from each Canadian employer, listing duties, hours and dates. IRCC checks these against the NOC.

Ontario's new nominee stream

In 2026 Ontario overhauled the OINP. Eight streams closed in late June 2026, including Human Capital Priorities, Foreign Worker and the Express Entry Skilled Trades stream. They were replaced by the Ontario Workforce Priority stream, and the expression of interest portal opened on 4 August 2026 [5].

For TEER 0–3 jobs, the stream needs [5]:

a full-time, permanent job offer from an Ontario employer, submitted through the employer portal
work experience: six consecutive months with that employer in the last 12 months, or two years in the occupation in the last five (licensed occupations are exempt)
language at CLB 6 (CLB 5 for some occupations)
a post-secondary degree or diploma

From October 2026, Ontario's scoring also gives 10 points to registrants who earned CA$80,000 or more in a single year in the past five years, verified by a CRA Notice of Assessment [5]. That's one more reason to file your Canadian tax return on time.

A nomination that links into Express Entry is worth 600 CRS points [2], which all but guarantees an invitation. Check the OINP pages for how the new stream connects to Express Entry, because Ontario calls the June changes the first phase of a wider redesign [5].

Timing so your status doesn't lapse

This is where PR plans fall over. An IEC permit is usually one participation of up to 24 months, and you can't just roll it over.

Months 1–6: land a TEER 0–3 job. Order your ECA and police checks from Australia.
Months 6–12: sit your English test. Track your hours monthly.
Month 13 or so: with 1,560 hours done, create your Express Entry profile.
After an invitation: submit your full PR application with every document ready to go.
Once IRCC confirms it's complete: apply for a bridging open work permit (BOWP). You need to be in Canada, be the principal applicant, have passed the completeness check and hold a valid permit or maintained status [6].

A profile in the pool isn't a PR application, so it doesn't make you eligible for a BOWP [6]. If your IEC permit will expire before you're invited, you'll need another work permit, which may mean your employer getting a new LMIA or job offer [6]. If you leave Canada after your permit expires, you can't work until a new one is approved [6].

Rules and draw patterns change fast, as November 2026 showed. For anything high-stakes, get advice from a licensed Canadian immigration consultant or lawyer.

Back home

PR in Canada doesn't affect your Australian citizenship. If you later become a Canadian citizen, Australia allows dual citizenship. Do think about your Australian tax residency, super and Medicare once you settle for the long term.

Want to compare timelines with Aussies a step or two ahead? Ask in Cooee Canada, our Facebook group for Australians in Canada. Plenty of members have gone from IEC to PR.

From IEC to PR in Canada: Express Entry for Australians