Letter from Canada: Indians Are Welcomed and Accepted Easily

As US President Donald Trump scraps one more immigration policy of the Obama era, many Indians who have spent sleepless nights to acquire the coveted Green Card are finally jumping ship and migrating next door -- to good old Canada!

For many talented and skilled Indians, the immediate alternative is Canada and this government is happy to welcome highly educated and technically skilled Indians. The Canadian Governments' Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) board pulled out some hard data at my request. It shows that India was the number one source country for migration to Canada in 2017 and is on track to retain that top slot this year as well.

The numbers tell the story. A research paper on H1B visas says there was a 42% increase in denial of H1B petitions of Indian-born professionals from the third to the fourth quarter of FY2017. Trump governments' trend to deny qualified folks an entry into the US.

But rejections apart, it is the fear of the US government deporting candidates whose applications are denied, that worries experts. "Clearly this is another policy that is meant to discourage people from making a career in the US," says Anderson. "Whereas other countries are trying to attract highly skilled people, for some reason, the current administration wants to encourage them to them to work anywhere but the US."   

Under Canada’s 2016 Express Entry (EE) program that specifically deals with qualified people, a path to permanent residency is swift. It takes only a few months for qualifying candidates to acquire the Canadian permanent resident card (PR card), which is akin to the US Green Card.A huge growth of Indians migrating to Canada is also witnessed under the Canadian Experience Class program (CEC) of the EE, which is meant for temporary foreign workers and foreign graduates with Canadian work experience.

 During 2016, only 1,800 Indians became PR holders, but that number grew to 11,490 in 2017---a whopping increase of 538%! The high trend of migration continues as 5,700 Indians became PR holders in the first five months of this year alone.   

 Another program that is seeing a lot of traction is the Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP).  In 2016, (under the FSWP), 4,780 Indians received their PR cards.  That number jumped 82.6% to 8,730 Indians in 2017. Between January to May 2018, a whopping 12,090 PR cards were issued to Indians under this program. Indians are also looking at Canada more favourably because opportunities for technology experts are shrinking worldwide. Europe has seen a wave of right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment; the UK just had Brexit, Australia is revamping its immigration system, Singapore is now saturated and President Trump seems in no mood to stop badgering immigrants. For more details for study abroad and immigration visit http://gkworks.in/study-and-settle-abroad/study-settle-canada/ today!