Residence permits issued for the first time in the European Union climbed close to pre-pandemic levels last year, with Poland leading the bloc due mostly to work-related immigration while France largely attracted students, the bloc's statistics office said on Tuesday.
Despite the continuing pandemic, the number of first residence permits issued in the EU to non-EU citizens jumped 31% to 2,952,300 in 2021 from a year earlier, just a touch below the 2,955,300 such permits issued in 2019.
