With the US tech industry scrambling to contain the fallout of Donald Trump’s latest assault against immigrants, Europe senses blood in the water. Trump blindsided American businesses late last week with a new $100,000-a-year fee on all H-1B visas, which are used to bring tens of thousands of skilled workers to the country’s tech sector. Giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft spent the weekend rushing existing H-1B visa holders back from abroad and urging them to cancel future travel plans. Rivals across the pond spent it mounting a charm offensive to lure disillusioned foreign workers their way.
“The new $100k H-1B fee has left incredible talent in limbo,” wrote Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder of British fintech unicorn Cleo, on LinkedIn. “If that’s you, we want to help.”
“We know uprooting your life wasn’t part of your plan. But sometimes the best opportunities come from unexpected changes,” Hussey-Yeo said, touting more than 100 open roles in the company’s London office.
Victor Riparbelli, cofounder and CEO of London-based Synthesia, an AI video startup and another unicorn, published a similar post on the platform. “H-1Bs are causing a lot of uncertainty right now,” he wrote. “Luckily you don’t need one to get a Silicon Valley kind of job.”
It’s not just unicorns who are trying to divert disaffected talent to Britain. “If your H-1B looks a little rocky we sponsor visas for engineers wanting to try a stint in the UK!” said Ross McNairn, CEO of Scottish legal AI company Wordsmith. LinkedIn and X are full of posts from founders and leaders at smaller tech firms like Definely, Exo Labs, and Verto, all namedropping H-1B visas in their overtures to talent. Many promise competitive salaries, visa and relocation costs, and, most importantly, less uncertainty than workers are facing in the US.
Even the British government smells an opportunity, with the H-1B visa chaos reportedly emboldening an existing campaign to axe visa charges for top global talent.
US government officials have tried to allay some fears about the new fee. They’ve assured employers that the $100,000 fee will not apply to renewals or existing visa holders and say workers who are already part of the program can travel as normal without worrying about getting slapped with a re-entry fee.
The administration has also started promising exemptions for certain industries. H-1B visas are vital not only for the tech world, but for research universities and the medical sector — one of the first groups the White House suggested might get a fee waiver was doctors.
For some reason, companies seem hesitant to take this administration at its word — they scrambled to get workers back to the US by the administration’s September 21st deadline and are still telling staff to cancel their travel plans and stay put. The administration has already spent months alienating foreign workers and making the US a less attractive destination — revoking thousands of student visas, arresting hundreds of South Koreans at an LG battery plant, and issuing blanket bans on citizens from entire countries.
US companies are acutely aware of how damaging Trump’s policy will be. Big Tech is big enough to weather the storm but startups are going to be hit hard, said Garry Tan, CEO and president of tech incubator Y Combinator. “Early teams can’t swallow that tax,” he said, slamming the decision to tell “builders to build elsewhere… in the middle of an AI arms race.” The visa changes are a “massive gift to every overseas tech hub,” Tan said.
But Trump and the tech industry have rarely seen eye to eye. It is unlikely the sector’s complaints will concern him much, especially when the overhaul offers him a useful stick — or carrot, depending which way you look at it — to wield against Big Tech to keep it in line. Perhaps executives will debase themselves further to stay in his benevolent grace.
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