In the United States, large companies decide to relocate their foreign employees

Due to measures taken by the Trump administration on immigration, multinational companies, including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, are losing some of their most valuable employees. This situation has led to questioning the United States’ role as a global hub of talent, according to the Financial Times.

Not only do companies now have to pay exorbitant fees for each H-1B visa, reserved for specialized professionals, but the processing times for applications have significantly increased – not to mention the risks of outright rejection. “I feel like the administration is deliberately creating problems for people to permanently leave the United States,” said an Indian professional based in Atlanta. He just had his essential visa renewal appointment postponed to 2027.

Faced with multiple obstacles in bringing the “best engineers, consultants, and scientists” to the United States, employers are changing their approach. Among the very large companies sponsoring visas for over a thousand employees, six out of ten have decided to relocate their foreign employees, as reported by the British daily.

These companies are considering creating new “talent hubs” outside the United States, in countries like the United Kingdom or Canada. For example, an immigration lawyer explains how clients choose to “reserve” Toronto for a year for their new hires, even resorting to “non-immigrant” L-1 visas later on which are valid for up to seven years and are much cheaper for the company compared to an H-1B visa.

Despite around 400,000 H-1B visa applications being approved in 2025, the majority were actually renewals, notes the Financial Times. Companies specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) development – an area where the competition to attract the best engineers “remains fierce” – are among the few still primarily using the H-1B visa. It costs them $100,000 in fees per application.