Planning to migrate to Canada? Given the hard-line anti-immigration stance of the Trump administration in the US, Indians are increasingly looking at Canada for work and settlement opportunities. In fact, in 2018, over 39,600 Indian citizens obtained permanent residency in Canada under the Express Entry Route, a point-based selection system for Canadian immigration, The Times of India reported. That's a jump of over 50 per cent from the 26,300 odd Indian citizens who were awarded permanent residency in 2017.
"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," Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Canada's immigration division, said in a recently released Express Entry year-end report.
According to the daily, Canada admitted 92,231 new permanent entry residents through its express entry system in 2018, up 41 per cent year-on-year. Of them, Indians grabbed the lion's share at 43 per cent, followed by Nigeria (6,653 people admitted) and China (5,885). Permanent residency is akin to the green card in the US. In 2017, Canada had reportedly admitted nearly 65,500 permanent residents, of which 40% were Indians, less than 9 per cent were Chinese and 4.3 per cent were Nigerians.
Moving to Canada is likely to get easier for Indians boasting a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) background here on since the country recently made its Global Talent Stream (GTS) scheme permanent. GTS enables the sponsoring employers to get the application processing work done within two weeks. Moreover, the job aspirants who get hired under the GTS route earn valuable work experience in Canada which gives them an edge when they apply for the permanent residency under the Express Entry Route. The Canadian budget for the year 2019 pointed out that the GTS programme has spawned commitments from Canadian employers to create 40,000 new jobs for the Canadian and permanent residents.
Express entry draws are held periodically. The latest round was on June 21, which will see 3,350 candidates being invited to take up permanent residency. According to the Canadian government, immigrants account for 75 per cent of the nation's population and about six in 10 applicants are selected for their "positive economic impact". The country has rolled out an ambitious three-year plan that hopes to scale up immigration levels from 3.30 lakh in 2019 to 3.50 lakh in 2021. This could be your chance to join the party.
Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal
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