The Number of Indians Becoming US Citizens Drops
14/07/2008 by Ajay Hasija

Indian nationals still remain a key source of skilled labour in the Unites States, with thousands of people becoming US citizens last year.

After Mexico, India is the second biggest foreign group that contributes to new permanent resident figures in the US each year, making up 7% of those who were naturalised in 2007.

This is according to the Annual Flow Report of the US Office of Immigration Statistics. This report calculated almost 47 000 Indians who became US citizens out of a total of over 650 000.

This is however a drop from last years figures of about 47 500 Indians becoming citizens. And it is constant visa difficulties and quotas have been attributed to affecting this.

Indians are also seeing immigration opportunities elsewhere, reports www.globalvisas.com. For years America was the destination of choice for Indians, but today countries like Canada and Australia have become extremely attractive options due to job prospects and booming economies.

People from Asia made up the majority of those who became Americans in the years 1976 to 2006, excluding 1996 to 2000. However this Asian majority was taken over by North and Central Americans due to the massive naturalisation of illegal immigrants.

Asians and North Americans do however still make up the largest proportion, about 37%, of those naturalised in the US last year.

Mexico leads the list of countries of origin for new US citizens with 19% of the total, followed by India and then the Philippines with 6%.
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