Disclaimer: I'm an immigrant on a restrictive visa, so obvious conflict of interest. The harshness of the US immigration system has little to do with how easy/

Disclaimer: I'm an immigrant on a restrictive visa, so obvious conflict of interest. The harshness of the US immigration system has little to do with how easy/hard it is to let people in. The issues arise with how restrictive the visas are, once you get in. > He adds Google employees have often had to leave the US while waiting for the PERM process to finish and for their green cards to be approved. This is clearly meant to point toward Indians and Chinese. Waiting 50+ years for a green card betrays the intentions of the legislation and creates uncecessary misery for everyone involved. Bringing top AI talent to the US is easy. Do a masters, pay the $100k entry-fee to the university and get your 3 year permission to work in the US. But that's where the process becomes an anxiety inducing mess. First you have to win a 'lottery' with a 30% success rate. Then, you have to go through a 2-ish year long process through mountains of paper work to do your Green Card application. Then wait one more year to get an acknolwedgement (I-140), which puts you in a 50+ year long queue. Now, if you want to make a minor change in job role, location, company, start a startup....doesn't matter. Do this expensive process all over again. Oh yeah, did I mention that the embassy stamping officer, the airport agent, the application form evaluator and your employer can arbitrarily drop you any day ? Now, that's fine if I'm 25 and single. But, one day I'll be 40 with kids, still on this stupid H1b/Greencard-queue and my life can get uprooted overnight. It is the an all-too-literal instance of golden handcuffs. If you want immigrants, then let in immigrants. If you want fewer immigrants, then then let in fewer immigrants. If you want better immigrants, then raise the bar. If you want temporary workers, then make it impossible for H1b folks to apply to greencards. All are sensible approaches. But the US system lures you in with the promise of a better life, and uniquely screws you over if you just so happen to be Indian. _____________ All that being said, the tech market clearly has too many unemployed citizens as of 2024. I am suspicious of more immigration being the answer. I know people from top-10 CS universities graduating with no jobs. If Google is so desperate, then lower your bar to 2020-era levels, and train up these junior engineers to your required level of competence. If Google wants true experts, then the O1 already exists. I'm lucky enough to be considered 'senior' (whatever that means in tech) technical person now. And I thank my lucky stars for it. This is the most brutal 'junior' market that I have seen since the early-2010s.