Canada has emerged as a coveted destination for India’s diaspora. Indians appear gung-ho about Canada’s Express Entry programme which invites top-ranked candidates under the country’s point-based immigration system to take up permanent residency.
Express Entry is Canada’s flagship programme for key economic migration. Under the scheme, out of the 86,022 invitations sent in 2017, nearly 42% (or 36,310) were to those holding Indian citizenship. The total number of invitations sent in 2017 was more than double the previous year 33,782.
In 2016, the number of invites sent to those having Indian citizenship in Canada was merely 11, 037, showing an increase of more than 200% a year later.
According to the Express Entry Year-end Report, 2017, issued recently by the Candian government’s immigration division, a little over 1 lakh applications were received for permanent residency under the Express Entry programme in 2017, 86,022 invitations were sent & 65,401 permanent residents and their families were admitted into Canada.
Among those applicants who had job offers & were admitted as permanent residents, occupations like software engineers & designers, information system analysts computer programmers & university lecturers topped the charts.
These statistics show an increase in the number of Indians opting for Canadian permanent residency, strengthen the belief that many H-1B visa holders, tired of the backlog & infinite wait for a green card grants permanent residency on American soil are now heading towards Canada.
Vikram Rangnekar, now an entrepreneur in Toronto, is among those who made the move. “I lived in the US for 6 years on H-1B visa. I had a great life in California, lots of friends, an awesome job & enjoyed the outdoors. Then, I realised that I didn’t want to continue living my life on a restrictive visa. I wanted more freedom, I wanted to work on my own ideas & that was just not possible under the H-1B visa.”