New Delhi: About 18,000 Indians in Canada have renounced their Indian citizenship in 2023, in just six months of the year — just shy of the number of Indians who gave up their Indian citizenship in Canada in all of 2018. Trends over the last five years show that more and more Indians in Canada are seeking foreign citizenship, making it the second most popular country after the US where this takes place.
Experts say the diplomatic row with Canada currently has no impact on this trend unless the Indian government decides to stop new Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) applications.
According to data provided by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) last month, Canada overtook Australia last year as the second-most preferred destination for Indians seeking foreign citizenship. The figures this year have only been updated until June.
In 2022, over 71,000 Indians in the US gave up their citizenship followed by Canada (60,139), Australia (40,377) and the UK (21,457). But in 2021, over 78,000 Indians in the US gave up their citizenship followed by Australia (23,533), Canada (21,597) and the UK (14,637).
From 2021-22, the figures for Canada have seen a whopping 178 percent increase, whereas they have only doubled for Australia.
Impact of India-Canada row
Over 1.6 lakh Indians in Canada gave up citizenship in Canada in the last five years, steadily growing from roughly 20,000 in 2018 to about 60,000 last year.
Further, Indians in Canada renouncing citizenship accounted for 26.65 percent of total renunciations worldwide in 2022. During the 2020 Covid pandemic, this figure dropped to 17,093, the lowest over the last five years.
“Offices shutdowns and immigration employees moving to home offices perhaps contributed to this,” Canada-based immigration consultant Ajimon Ouseph told ThePrint.
Notably, renunciations of Indian citizenship in Canada didn’t drop as dramatically as they did in the US during the pandemic. From 2019-2020, it dropped about 32 percent in Canada but the figures in the US halved.
Ouseph predicts that the recent diplomatic row between New Delhi and Ottawa will have “little to no impact” on Canadian citizenship applications from Indians because their long-term plan is to stay back there.
He added: “But a major concern for Indian Canadians who renounce their Indian citizenship would be if India decides to stop accepting new Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) applications and processing those.”
India has so far suspended all visa categories for Canadian nationals, but applications for new OCI cards are not affected. The suspension of visa services came after Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said authorities are investigating a potential link between Indian agents and the death of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Canadian diplomatic strength is three times that of India’s, besides an extra Mission