New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS): Indians grabbed the lion's share of the 152,336 national work visas granted to foreign nationals by the German authorities in 2022, according to the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

Indians were granted a total of 17,379 work visas last year, with the majority of them -- 8,613 -- being granted by the German Consulate General in Bengaluru, marking a significant increase compared to 2021, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported.

The second-highest number of work visas for Indians was granted by the German Consulate General in Mumbai -- 3,013, -- followed by the Consulate General in Chennai (2,483), the German Embassy in New Delhi (2,434), and the German Consulate in Kolkata (836).

While visiting India earlier this year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had said that his government wants to ease the path for information technology experts from India to obtain work visas in the European country.

A survey by Munich-based Ifo Institute released earlier this month found the country facing an acute labour crisis with more than 43 per cent of nearly 9,000 firms polled suffering from a lack of qualified workers in July -- up from just over 42 per cent in April this year.

After India, Turkey with 12,542 and Serbia with a total of 11,792 German work visas were the biggest beneficiaries in 2022.

A large number of national work visas were also granted to Bosnians, Kosovars, Russians, Albanians, and North Macedonians.

Last year, Germany issued a total of 393,083 national visas. After work visas, the second and third highest number of visas issued were study and spouse reunification visas.

Germany issued 71,129 national visas for spouse reunification and 71,018 national study visas in 2022.

A total of 8,930 Indian nationals were granted spouse reunification visas, with the majority processed by the German Consulate General in Bengaluru.

As of April 2023, the German Embassy in India had some 25,000 student visa applications for the next two semesters, Philipp Ackerman, the country’s Ambassador to India, had said.

A March 2023 report by Wissenschaft weltoffen, a project of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), revealed that the European country was hosting a total of 33,753 Indian students -- making up 9.7 per cent of the 349,438 total international cohort in 2021-22.