OINP – French-Speaking Skilled Worker

1. Under the Federal Skilled Worker Program

You must have:

• At least one year of continuous paid full-time work experience (or the equivalent in paid part-time work) in TEER Category 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC)
• Your work experience must have been:
  • Obtained within the last five years from the date of submitting your application to the OINP
  • In the same primary occupation as you identified in your Express Entry profile. You may have gained your work experience in Canada or overseas.
• Continuous means no breaks in employment over a one-year period.
• Work experience may consist of back-to-back jobs with the same or different employer(s) (with no gap in between), but at least one year must be in the same NOC occupation as your primary NOC declared in your Express Entry profile.
• If you are using periods of self-employment, you will need to provide employment documentation that is independently verifiable through third parties. This can include client reference letters indicating your duties and periods of work, as well as evidence of ongoing payments to you personally, for the services provided (for example, invoices). Please also note that your hours of self-employed work must be quantifiable to ensure that you accumulated at least 1,560 hours over one year of employment. Reference letters from yourself, your business partners, and/or a family member are not accepted by the program.

2. Under the Canadian Experience Class

You must have:

• At least one year of cumulative paid full-time work experience (or the equivalent in paid part-time work) in Canada in TEER Category 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the NOC
• Your work experience must have been:
  • Obtained within the last three years from the date of submitting your application to the OINP
  • In one or more of the occupations that you identified in your Express Entry profile in Canada while maintaining legal status in Canada.
• Cumulative means the work you’ve done must add up to one year – it does not have to be one year of continuous work.
• Paid work experience gained while studying full-time at a post-secondary institution (for example, on a co-op work term) and self-employment are not eligible under the CEC.

3. Under Both Programs

• Your work experience must have been obtained over a period of at least one year – work experience totaling 1,560 hours obtained in less than one year period does not qualify. Full-time work experience means working in a job with at least 30 hours of paid work in a week that amounts to at least 1,560 hours of paid work in one year.
• Part-time equivalent work experience means:
  • Working in one job for at least 15 hours per week, for two years that amounts to at least 1,560 hours in that two-year period, or
  • Working in more than one job for at least 30 hours per week, for one year, that amounts to at least 1,560 hours of paid work in that one year period.
• If your work experience was obtained in Ontario in an occupation that requires a licence or other authorization, only work experience acquired after becoming qualified to practice that occupation in Ontario will qualify.
• Volunteer work and unpaid internships do not count as work experience.
• Vacation periods, regular sick leave, and other standard paid leave entitlements as provided for in collective agreements, workplace legislation, and/or individual employer policies are not considered interruptions to full-time employment. Extended leaves are considered interruptions to full-time employment and are not to be included in the calculation of work experience.