The growing intensity of the US visa approval process has made it more difficult for companies to attract, support and retain foreign talent. However, recruiters are still sourcing talent from abroad at an increasing clip.
According to a recent, roughly 30-page, report published by Envoy – the corporate workforce immigration management platform – US corporate demand for foreign talent has remained resilient in the face of a stricter stance on immigration taken by the current government. With help from The Harris Poll, the Envoy 2019 Immigration Trends report surveyed 405 high-ranking human resource and recruiting professionals – across companies from a wide array of sizes, stages, and sectors – regarding changes and trends in the employment-based immigration process.
Many of the report’s major conclusions are not new revelations. While undoubtedly a vital – and unnerving – trend in regards to the sustainability of the US knowledge economy, recent difficulties in the H-1B visa process, and the burdens they’ve placed on US companies, have been well-telegraphed.
As we’ve discussed in the past, recent data out of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services department shows that approvals for H-1B visas have fallen nearly 10% in consecutive years, while requests for additional agencies from reviewing agencies have become over 30% more frequent over the same period.
As one would expect, this year — and in several of past iterations of the survey — a significant portion of the survey respondents noted that the application process had become more difficult or costly (47% of respondents) and had caused them to reevaluate their internal immigration assistance processes (47%). Affirming trends we’ve also previously mentioned, most respondents desired quicker processing times (97%), expediting filing allowances (95%), and more clarity throughout the process (93%), while also highlighting Canada as a progressively attractive location to house non-US employees.
In my mind, the report’s most interesting data point was the fact that in spite of less frequent visa approvals and a slower, more arduous application process, many companies expected their recruitment of foreign talent to actually expand. According to the data, roughly half of responding companies expected their foreign headcount to increase, while 80% expected it to increase or stay the same. While the expected growth rates were very modestly down versus previous years, the data seems to indicate that many companies have not significantly changed foreign hiring practices, with 95% of applicants affirming that importing overseas brainpower was an important practice for their talent strategy.
Additionally, a meaningful portion of participating companies indicated that compliance with various immigration stipulations had become more difficult, with many having to increase budgets and hiring associated with immigration-related services and compliance. At the same time, the data also showed companies were providing more immigration services and offering visa sponsorship to employees earlier in their tenure.
In context, the data points reach the same conclusion: As many have noted, the battle for talent and STEM expertise has only grown more fierce. Companies are therefore having to offer more immigration – as well as other – services in order to attract the best talent. Forced to support more services to compete, company cost structures are swelling as new jobs and entire departments are being built just to handle the increasingly complex visa process and the headaches that come with it, in a similar fashion to massive corporate compliance departments that focus solely on complex tax code.
Based on recent data points, smaller companies appear to be bearing the brunt of the government’s crackdown as the impact to larger companies seems more muted, with The Wall Street Journal recently noting Apple, Microsoft and other giants still maintain 99% visa approval rates.
With misguided enforcement making the H-1B visa approval process more difficult, the US government is inadvertently threatening the US’ knowledge economy and its long-standing competitive edge in entrepreneurship. Changes to US immigration handling aren’t preventing companies from hiring foreign workers because companies fighting to recruit the best people cannot afford to do otherwise. As a result, it is not only becoming more difficult and less attractive for the most-qualified foreign workers to relocate to the US, it is also making it harder for younger, smaller companies with fewer resources to grow and compete against larger incumbents.
While much of the Envoy report won’t blow anyone anyway, the 2019 Immigration Trends report offers a couple more nuanced observations that paint a more comprehensive picture of a dynamic we already know to be true. While other countries and emerging economies seem to be doing anything to become the next global hub for innovation, with the direction of its immigration policies the US seems to be doing everything to compromise its own.