There were two draws that were conducted on 26th March and both of them were unique in their own rights as “Target of Interest” was issued by Ontario to the candidates who fulfilled the HCP stream criteria and to those who either had a work offer in Ontario or had French language skills of CLB 7 or above. The first draw selected the total number of 480 candidates under this the job offer and HCP criteria candidates were selected then in the second draw there was a selection of additional 299 candidates in which the French language proficient and HCP stream people met the benchmark. However, in both these draws the Ontario Immigrant Nominee program (OINP) had invited candidates who had submitted their applications between 1st January 2018 to 26th March 2018.

It is one of those few draws in which such a low score was asked as generally Ontario under HCP requires a score of 400 or above. The reason issued by the Government of Ontario for such low scores is the need to “meet its labour market and economic development priorities, as well as to be more responsive to employer needs.” Further, by inviting applications from French speaking candidates Ontario wants to meet its Five percent goal of Francophone immigration under the Ontario Immigration policy.