New Delhi, June 15: With two weeks for the expiry of the green card scheme of the German government for it professionals, Indians remained the largest national group to possess the cards. India is the largest group of nationals with 3,717 Indians having received the green card out of the total 14,434 cards issued so far by the German government till May 2003 since its inception in July 2000, German Embassy sources told here.
The second largest group comes from the successor states of former Soviet Union -- Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Baltik states with 1845 green cards followed by Romania with 1028 cards, they said.
Sources said "information could be expected around the end of the June about the possible extension or a follow-up of the green card scheme".
A general law on immigration to Germany, which would be a first time legislation on the subject in the nation's history, was under active consideration of the German parliament, they added.
The green card scheme comes to an end on June 30.
German Federal Minister for Economics and Labour Wolfgang Clement had assured a business delegation of Ficci and CII headed by Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley last month that it would liberalise access for Indian IT professionals to Germany under a revised visa regime.
Bureau Report