US hands out most visas to Indian immigrants, followed by Australia & Canada: Report

Indians have topped the chart in terms of migrating to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and acquiring a foreign citizenship. 

Among the OECD countries, the United States has handed out most passports to Indian immigrants in 2021(56,000), followed by Australia(24,000) and then Canada(21,000). 

OECD is a group of 38-member countries and though India is not among them it is a key partner along with Brazil, China, Indonesia, and South Africa

As per an OECD report published on October 23, in the Paris-International Migration Outlook: 2023, while Indians have the largest share in acquiring rich-country citizenship, Canada has experienced the highest jump in terms of granting citizenship to foreign nationals with an increase of 174 per cent between 2021 and 2022.

This comes at a time when India and Canada relations are strained in the wake of allegations by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India. The students who are currently in Canada are afraid that they might face trouble getting a job and those who are set to go to the country in the upcoming academic year are considering if they should wait for another year.

In 2019 1.5 lakh Indians acquired citizenship of OECD member countries and 1.3 lakh had gotten citizenships in 2021. Last year, 28 lakh foreigners were granted an OECD citizenship making it the highest so far.

Though the report did not get into the country-wise break-up, it mentioned that when it comes to acquiring OECD country citizenship, India has been the main country of origin since 2019.