Indian citizens received 46 percent of all Invitations to Apply (ITAs) issued through Express Entry in 2018, with Chinese and Nigerian citizens receiving the next highest numbers.
(Check out our complete overview of the official 2018 Express Entry Report here.)
These figures are according to the 2018 Express Entry Year-End Report, which was released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in July, 2019.
According to the report, 89,800 Invitations to Apply were issued in 2018, with 41,675 of those ITAs going to Express Entry candidates with Indian citizenship. Meanwhile, 6,248 ITAs were issued to citizens of China, and another 6,025 issued to citizens of Nigeria, equal to approximately 7 percent of total ITAs respectively.
Indian, Chinese, and Nigerian citizens also represented the top three countries of citizenship to receive ITAs through Express Entry in 2017. However, Indian citizens received only 42 percent of all ITAs in 2017, and jumped to 46 percent in 2018, marking a distinct increase and positioning Indian citizens as highly successful in the Express Entry system. Many Indian citizens have experience in specific tech and IT occupations, and it’s no wonder that when one looks at the most common occupations among invitations in 2018, it is those occupations that dominate.
Receiving an Invitation to Apply through Express Entry allows a candidate to submit an official application for Canadian permanent resident status. ITAs are issued to candidates in the Express Entry pool through Express Entry draws which occur every few weeks.
The top ten countries of citizenship to receive ITAs in Express Entry in 2018 are as follows:
| Express Entry ITAs issued by Top 10 Countries of Citizenship (2018 & 2019) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Number of ITAs received, 2018 | Percent of total ITAs issued, 2018 | Number of ITAs received, 2019 | Percent of total ITAs issued, 2019 |
| India | 41,675 | 46% | 40,275 | 47% |
| Nigeria | 6,025 | 7% | 5,886 | 7% |
| China | 6,247 | 7% | 5,668 | 7% |
| Pakistan | 3,108 | 3% | 2,509 | 3% |
| United Kingdom | 2,549 | 3% | 2,128 | 2% |
| Brazil | 1,847 | 2% | 1,801 | 2% |
| United States | 1,803 | 2% | 1,561 | 2% |
| Iran | 1,299 | 1% | 1,475 | 2% |
| France | 1,371 | 2% | 1,455 | 2% |
| South Korea | 1,254 | 1% | 1,225 | 1% |
| 2018 percentage figures are based on a total of 89,800 ITAs, which is the total number of ITAs issued through Express Entry in 2018. | 2019 percentage figures are based on a total of 85,300 ITAs, which is the total number of ITAs issued through Express Entry in 2019. | |||
Readers should be aware of the difference between citizenship and residence. A person may hold citizenship from one country but live in another country. In this case, while 46% of ITAs were issued to Indian citizens, only 17% of ITAs were issued to Indian residents. Many Indian citizens apply while already residing in Canada, or while undergoing employment in the United States on a temporary H-1B work visa, or in another country.
The information in this article is from the year-end 2018 Express Entry report, which was published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in early July 2019.
See our other summaries from the 2018 Express Entry Year-End Report, including:
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