Ontario WSIB Claim Deadlines
The dates that govern a WSIB claim in Ontario. Free. No email required. For anyone injured at work.
You cannot sue your employer for a work injury in Ontario. WSIB is the whole system, which means every deadline below is not a backup route. It is the only route.
AT A GLANCE
| You have | To do this | Counting from |
|---|---|---|
| 21 days | Object to your medical information being released to your employer | Notice of the release |
| 30 days | Object to a return to work or work transition decision | The date of that decision |
| 6 months | Report the injury and file your Form 6 | The injury, or when you knew it was work related |
| 6 months | Object to any other WSIB decision | The date of that decision |
| 6 months | Appeal to WSIAT after the final WSIB decision | The Appeals Resolution Officer decision |
How long do you have to stop your medical file going to your employer?
Twenty one days, and it is the deadline nobody tells you about. When your employer is given access to your claim file, you have twenty one days to object to the release of the medical information in it.
This is the shortest window in the whole WSIB process and it is about something people care about enormously once they realise it is happening. Your diagnoses, your treatment, your psychological care if you have needed any, going to the person you work for.
Open every WSIB envelope the day it arrives and write the date on it. Twenty one days is gone in three weeks of feeling unwell.
How long do you have to report a workplace injury in Ontario?
Six months, but tell your employer immediately. Your own report to WSIB is the Form 6, Worker's Report of Injury or Illness, and it must be filed within six months of the date of injury.
For an injury that came on gradually, the six months runs from the day you became aware it was caused by your work. For an occupational disease, it runs from the diagnosis. Both of those are dates only you can establish, so write down when you first connected the two.
Do not wait the six months. Your employer files a Form 7 and your health professional files a Form 8, and your claim is adjudicated on how those three fit together. Filing late means the other two were written without your version alongside them.
How long do you have to object to a WSIB decision?
Thirty days or six months, and assuming the wrong one is the most common way a claim quietly ends.
Thirty days applies to decisions about return to work, work transition, labour market re-entry and re-employment. Six months applies to everything else, including initial entitlement, loss of earnings, health care and permanent impairment.
Read the letter for the words, not the topic. If a decision letter mentions return to work, work transition, modified duties, re-employment or labour market re-entry, treat it as thirty days and act this week.
There is one piece of good news buried in the rules. If you are objecting to two decisions with two different limits, the six month limit applies to both.
You object using an Intent to Object form. The decision letter itself will state the applicable time limit, so keep every letter with the date it arrived written on it.
If you have missed it, write to the decision maker asking for an extension and explaining why. The Registrar decides time limit questions and will respond within thirty days. It is not automatic, but it is not nothing.
What happens after the WSIB appeal?
Six months to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal. Once the WSIB Appeals Services Division has issued a final decision through an Appeals Resolution Officer, you have six months to submit a Notice of Appeal to WSIAT, with that decision attached.
WSIAT is independent of the WSIB. If you do not file inside the six months you cannot proceed, and waits for a hearing date can run to a year or more, so the file you have built by then is the file you are arguing from.
Who can help you appeal for free in Ontario?
The Office of the Worker Adviser. It is an independent agency of the Ontario government that gives free advice and representation to non-unionized injured workers. If you are unionized, your union is the equivalent and usually has people who do this constantly.
Contact them early rather than at the deadline. Their capacity is finite and an appeal built in the last week is a weaker appeal.
Were you injured in a vehicle while working?
Then two systems apply to the same injury and they have completely different deadlines. Our Ontario accident benefits page sets out the motor vehicle side, where the first deadline is seven days rather than six months.
Last verified: July 2026
Checked against: WSIB, Objecting to a WSIB decision, WSIB Appeals Practices and Procedures, the Office of the Worker Adviser, and section 120 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.
Deadlines change. If you find something on this page that is out of date, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.
Keeping the record these deadlines depend on
Every deadline on this page runs from a letter arriving, and three of them are short enough that a week of feeling unwell uses most of the window.
Two things decide how an injury claim goes. What you wrote down and whether you did the right thing at the right time for where you live. The National Recovery Guide handles the first, the daily record of symptoms, appointments, calls and costs that a claim is eventually judged on. The Provincial Companion Guide handles the second, the deadlines on this page and the forms, boards and appeal routes behind them. People who have only one tend to end up with a careful record aimed at the wrong process, or the right dates and nothing to put in front of them.
Your Recovery. Documented. Protected.
See the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide
This page is general information for people in Ontario. It is not legal or medical advice. Rules differ by province and change over time. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a representative, the WSIB or the Office of the Worker Adviser.