We present the search for symbiotic stars in the Northern Galactic Plane within the IPHAS imaging survey. The criterion used to select this class of objects is a combination of the IPHAS r--Hα vs. r--i color-color diagram with the 2MASS J--H vs. H--K diagram. This allows us to distinguish symbiotic stars from other classes of Hα -emitting evolved stars and nebulae. Confusion with young stars in star-forming regions can be also limited by a careful selection of the regions of the Milky Way to be investigated. In this way, more than a thousand new candidate symbiotic stars have been selected so far, and a spectroscopic campaign to determine their real nature is in progress.