This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
Tech professionals around the world are on the edge as President Donald Trump and his administration impose a series of radical immigration measures.
From attempting to deport foreign nationals who are permanent legal residents to barring visitors from entering the country for expressing views on US foreign policy, immigrants have seen a tumultuous couple of months.
Last week, reports said the US government is considering placing travel restrictions on citizens from 43 countries. The plan would completely ban travel from 11 nations, impose heavy curbs on 10 others, and give 22 countries a 60-day ultimatum to address perceived deficiencies or risk moving to one of the other categories.
While workers from the targeted nations make up a relatively small percentage of the tech workforce, industry professionals outside the purview of the measures, too, have been increasingly concerned about being impacted by the shifting visa policies and anti-immigration rhetoric.
They are particularly worried about increased scrutiny of the H-1B visa, which is sought after by tech companies.
Immigration attorneys are now advising clients on temporary US visas to avoid leaving the country, warning they may encounter difficulties when attempting to return.
“There has been a surge in audits and enforcement actions against employers hiring foreign workers, creating job insecurity for legal immigrant employees,” Poorvi Chothani, managing partner at immigration law firm LawQuest, told Rest of World. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been increasingly visiting employees’ homes to “check if they are legally working from home,” she said in a statement. Chothani’s firm represents hundreds of individual and corporate clients.
Rest of World spoke with tech workers across several countries to record their concerns. Several of them asked to remain anonymous, fearing backlash from the US visa authorities.
A manager at a Chinese tech company, China
I have a 10-year visa, so I do not think this will affect me. But I want to get my husband a visa, too, and I am worried that his application will be rejected. I heard it is hard to get even a tourist visa right now – people seem to be getting rejected for no reason.
I own property in the US and if I am there to travel and visit friends, I would surely like to go with my husband. But given the situation, we wouldn’t dare to apply right now because if there is a record of him getting rejected once, it would be harder to get a visa in the future.
Atal Aggarwal, founder of immigration-focused software development firm OpenSphere, India
I lived in the US on H-1B for seven years. I wanted to build my own company and realised that the immigration system would always be a noose around my neck. I wanted the freedom to do what I wanted but it felt like it was a system where I kept pumping cash to get the right legal status. It just wasn’t working out for me.
Around November last year, I thought I should take control of my life and work on achieving my dreams instead of waiting for the US government’s help.
I returned to India, and since then, I have seen a lot of community news about the struggles Indians are facing with the immigration system without a proper way forward. People are realising it’s not worth the stress and that it’s not going to get better for the next four years until Trump is out of power. So they are moving ahead – either returning home or shifting to other countries where they can have a better life without the worries about immigration systems.
A Nigerian entrepreneur who lives with his family in Austin, Texas
One of my friends who lives in the US got fired last weekend. Now, he has just 30 days to find another job or leave the country. He relocated from Nigeria to the US with his wife and children last year. They sold everything they owned back in Nigeria before moving.
There are several immigration changes already affecting business or will make it harder to do business in the US in the future. For example, the US “Gold Card”, which everyone is talking about, is hard for any entrepreneur to get because of global taxation norms.
Even though I am on a green card right now and the recent visa changes have not affected me, the truth is that I need to rethink my future. I will definitely relocate out of the US and I’m planning to start looking for another country.
An Indian tech worker employed at a big tech firm in California
I hold a green card but my family back in India is worried that if I travel to meet them, I might face difficulty reentering the US. My family is even worried about anything I post on my social media.
I had a son six months ago and we wanted to take him to meet his grandparents in India. Typically, our parents would be excited about it but this time, given the fears around visas and layoffs in Silicon Valley, they asked if they should come to the US because “what if you guys come here and they never let you back in?”
I am finally traveling back later this week, and my dad is constantly calling me to ask me not to take anything lightly, to stay safe, to carry my old green card and visa paperwork, and not leave anything to chance. It’s not advice I am used to hearing from my father. I am used to him saying, “Come on. Life will be good.”
I don’t even know if I want to live in the US for the rest of my life. My personal bias towards the American Dream is at risk.
An Indian tech worker at a tech firm in the US
I am on an H-1B and I’ve reached a stage where I feel like if this doesn’t work out, I’ll just go back to India. My sister’s visa to visit me was rejected last week, which is something I had never heard of happening before.
I don’t know if it’s about the last two months as much as it is about the past 10 years. Being stuck in the H-1B loop for an Indian is always bad. What Trump can do is make certain things harder. But he is not the one who introduced the deathly 18- or 20-year waits for green cards. That has always been the reality of H-1B workers. But how much harder can they make it for someone stuck in the 18-year timeline for a green card?
An Indian tech consultant with a large consulting firm, U.S.
It is a strange situation. I know of people making hundreds of thousands of dollars but they know that they will have to move to Canada next June because their visa won’t be extended. In any other situation, if you made that kind of money, it would be wild to imagine that you can’t even stay where you want to stay.
It restricts how you make your life decisions or travel or see your family. People can’t get married or fly to attend a funeral.
The correct term to describe my status in the US is “a non-resident alien.” I am not an illegal alien, but I am an alien nonetheless. I am not a citizen so I don’t have a voice in how things function. It may seem unfair but you voluntarily sign up for it and most of us don’t really think it through in the hope of a better life.
This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
