Reforming U.S. Immigration System: Retaining High-Demand Talent

The U.S. can benefit tremendously by allowing talented immigrants to stay

Recently, Brad Chattergoon announced on Twitter that despite earning his degree in the U.S., he is seeking employment in other locations, such as Canada and Australia. Why isn’t he looking to continue his career in the U.S.? The Harvard, Yale, and Caltech-educated data scientist was not selected in the U.S. H1-B visa lottery, and will take his valuable skills and experience abroad rather than contribute to the American economy.

Brad’s story is common. International students earn about a quarter of all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees issued by American universities, and pursue STEM fields at significantly higher rates than their American counterparts. Even though these graduates are highly coveted by American employers, student visas only allow them to stay in the U.S. for up to three years after graduating.

We should strive to support skilled graduates like Brad by enabling them to stay in the United States, especially when they can meet a critical need or gap in our local economy. An analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy found that the majority of billion-dollar American firms were founded or co-founded by immigrants or their children and that more than 75% of American unicorns (privately held billion-dollar firms) were either founded by an immigrant or currently have an immigrant in a key leadership role. 

This includes the founders and leaders of famous U.S. tech companies, such as Sundar Pichai (CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company), Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla and SpaceX), and Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), who combined their ambition and skills to create and lead successful companies.

In our current labor shortage, reforming immigration is vital to overcoming supply shortages in several sectors and in mitigating inflation. Though the U.S. labor shortage has touched and affected every industry, technology fields have been hit particularly hard. This trend was exacerbated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which further limited American firms’ access to skilled foreign workers. 

The United States has the opportunity to learn from other countries that have considered more flexible paths to success for talented data scientists like Brad. The United Kingdom offers a High Potential Individual visa stream that allows graduates from the top 50 non-British universities worldwide to stay and work in the United Kingdom, and Canada’s Express Entry allows skilled professionals to receive an invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residence. 

In the United Arab Emirates, a Golden Visa enables graduates of the world’s top 100 universities to apply for a long-term (up to 10 years) visa, while Taiwan offers a Gold Card program designed to attract experts in key fields (including science and technology) and Singapore recently launched a similar Overseas Networks and Expertise pass. 

In each of these programs, the candidate has the option to renew their visa or apply for permanent residence immediately, thereafter.

With so many other countries trying to attract the Brads of the world, the U.S. will fundamentally be unable to attract and retain global talent without immigration reform. The United States should work to celebrate, retain, and attract skilled graduates of our universities, like Brad, enabling their talents, abilities, and skills to be integrated into our economy. 

To start, the U.S. should increase immigration streams, visa quotas, and visa lengths for skilled workers and graduates of American universities—especially those with high-demand STEM skills. This would give American tech giants and other key industries the access and ability to hire the brightest minds from around the world.

Employers do not have to scour the world to find its brightest minds - over a million of them are currently on American college and university campuses. To create a more seamless path from graduate programs to U.S. employment, Congress should extend the duration of Optional Practical Training (OPT) and Curricular Practical Training (CPT) for international students, and exempt those with in-demand STEM degrees from Green Card caps and the H1-B lottery. 

Removing randomness from deciding who gets to stay in the U.S. would be a substantial improvement and enables more strategic decisions about our economic and immigration policies.

These crucial changes to our immigration system would be exponentially beneficial to the United States, and would position us to mitigate gaps in numerous key industries. We need Brad and his classmates here - so let us find a way to keep them.

Sasha Ramani is the Head of Corporate Strategy for MPOWER Financing. Visit www.mpowerfinancing.com