CITIZENS FROM INDIA, China, and Russia are the top three nationalities outside of Europe to request visas to Ireland last year.
In 2017, non-EEA visa requests to Ireland mainly came from India (20.6%), China (13.4%), and Russia (11.1%). The EEA, or the European Economic Area, includes European Union members, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
In 2017, the number of people from non-EU countries legally living here increased by 13,000 over 2016. In 2016 there were 115,000 people in this category; in 2017 there were 128,000 people.
Brazil, India and China are the top three nationalities to be registered in Ireland for work, study or family reasons.
The current top 10 registered nationalities, which account for over 50% of all people registered are Brazil (14.6%), India (13.5%), China (9%), USA (7.4%), Pakistan (5.7%), Nigeria (4.2%), Philippines (3.6%), Malaysia (2.7%), Canada (2.6%), and South Africa (2.5%).
Most people with permission to remain in the State are working or studying, according to the Department of Justice.
In 2017, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service received 125,527 applications for short-stay and long-stay visas. This is a 1% increase on 2016, and a cumulative increase of 41% since 2012.
Commenting on the figures, which were published in the Immigration in Ireland Annual Review 2017 Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan said that there are almost 128,000 people from outside the EEA who are legally living in Ireland.
These are students and workers from Brazil, from India, from China, from the USA, and from many, many other countries.
“They are supporting the continuing economic growth of our nation, and the diversity which they add to Irish society is hugely important.”
You can read the full report here.
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