In 2023, EU countries issued 3.7 million primary residence permits for third-country nationals. Ukrainians, Belarusians and Indians received the most permits, with one third of all permits issued for employment.

In 2023, EU countries issued a record number of so-called primary residence permits for third-country nationals – 3.7 million, the highest figure since the start of data collection in 2013, UNN writes with reference to Euronews.

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A primary residence permit allows foreigners to reside in this country for a certain period of time and for a certain purpose, such as work, study, family or humanitarian reasons.

Eurostat data show that in 2023, the largest number of permits were issued to Ukrainian citizens (307,313), followed by Belarusians (281,279) and Indians (207,966).

Russians accounted for a significant share: a total of 116,142 permits were issued, most of them for family reasons.

Work permits accounted for 33.8% of the total, followed by family permits (26.4%), “humanitarian and other reasons” (25.6%), and education permits (14.3%).

The highest number of study permits was issued in 2022 (+63,674), with the highest number of permits issued to Indians (38,157), Chinese (35,620), and Americans (26,821).

Moroccans lead the list of permits for family reasons, accounting for more than 50%, while Belarusians (148,957), Syrians (127,043), Afghans (97,339) and Ukrainians (53,186) received the most permits for humanitarian reasons.

EU is preparing a new law to regulate migrationOct 15 2024, 08:48 AM • 12250 views