New Delhi: As many as 39,500 Indian citizens obtained permanent residency in Canada in the year 2018. However, the statistics that was recently released by Canada stated that it had admitted over 92,000 new permanent entry residents. This is an increase of 41% over the previous year. Permanent residency in Canada is similar to a green card in the United States (US).

In the year 2017, Canada had admitted nearly 65,500 permanent residents through its express entry route, of which 40%, or 26,300 odd, were from India.

However, the number of Indian citizens who were given permanent residency in 2018 has increased by 51% from 2017.

China had secured the second rank in 2017 and had slipped to the third rank in 2018, with only about 5,800 Chinese acquiring permanent residency.

Meanwhile, Nigeria obtained the second slot in this list. The number of invites issued to the citizens of China indicated a negative growth. Statistics revealed that even those who are based in India are also actively looking at Canada for employment or permanent settlement.

A pilot scheme, which has recently transited to a permanent scheme, the Global Talent Stream (GTS) enables Canadian companies to bring on board expats with a STEM background within a period of just two weeks.

It is to likely increase the flow of Indian employees to Canada. It may be noted that the national publication in its April 10 edition, had stated that many of these GTS workers are expected to later opt for permanent residency.

The Canadian government uses express entry system to manage the applications from skilled and qualified workers for permanent residence through three economic immigration programmes.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Canada’s immigration division, in its recently released express entry report stated, "The top countries of citizenship based on the people admitted to Canada generally mirrors those of invited candidates. Nearly half of all people admitted in 2018 had Indian citizenship."

As per the data, 41,675 invites, or 46% of the total, were sent to those holding Indian citizenship in 2018. In the previous year 2017, of the 86,022 total invites, 36,308 were issued to Indian citizens, 5,129 to Nigerians and 7,467 to Chinese citizens.