As far as I’m aware, Trump plans to remove all immigrants, whether documented or not, and even green card holders. I don’t think he will have much luck with it, but maybe I’m wrong.

Start applying for jobs outside the US. Finding a job is usually the longest part of moving.

You may want to try applying for citizenship at the same time, assuming you even want to stay for 2025-2028.

I’m speaking as a US citizen whose life would be improved by your presence in the US.

The sad part is that the brunt of this will likely be borne by nationals from countries that the US President has officially deemed “shithole countries”. Or, in other words, not white. You only have to look at his “Muslim ban” from last time, and know that he will expand it, to see how bad things are gonna get.

You may think you have some protection if you are a permanent resident. And you may have some protection if you are in a state that will not assist the Federal government in rounding people up. But you will continue to deal with the hassle every time you enter or leave the country. Which state you live in doesn’t matter at the border (and the airports are technically borders).

In my uninformed opinion, if you decide to stay, you shouldn’t make any plans to leave the country, because you will never really know if your authorization to stay in the country will be arbitrarily denied while you are away. It is probably better to just plan that the next time you leave the country, it will be for the foreseeable future. We will, unfortunately, not be very hospitable to you for the next 4 years (and maybe longer). Unless you are white. Which is all sorts of wrong. But the way it is these days.

Yeah actually, most H1Bs are making more than they could in their home countries and more than most Americans too. Big Tech salaries are upwards of $300k. There is a lot of incentive to stay.

Another point to consider is a very large percentage of H1Bs are Indian and a lot of them support Modi. They also support Trump by extension and believe that Trump only wants to crack down on “illegal” migrants, not them, despite the fact that Trump tried to curb the H1B program during his last term and Biden reversed it.

1. I don’t expect anything catastrophic to happen so suddenly that I won’t have time to flee.

2. Everyone I know is here, including people who depend on me.

3. I don’t want to learn another language.

4. I feel a lot less connected to the USA than I did before, but I don’t feel more connected to any other country than I do to the USA. The one my family and I came from is a huge mess and I certainly don’t want to return to it.

I’m taking the idea of leaving the country much more seriously than I had before, but it still seems unlikely.

As a skilled migrant that emigrated out of the US, no. There are plenty of companies in the EU that would love your talent and are more than willing give you better job protection and higher quality of life.

Immigrants often have families in their new country. You can’t think about those people as individuals because they would likely stay for their family, which would be hard to move.

I work in big tech, and in the US there is a lot of money being thrown at knowledge workers. IMO it’s not a bad thing, but I do wish that other workers also got their fair share.

Regardless, the dirty secret of these companies is that a big part of your compensation is usually restricted stock units, and when you relocate through work to a different country you usually get to keep the same amount of stock. You’ll get a good base pay, but your stock once vested will usually put you leaps and bounds above the average pay.

So, work for one of these companies that pays stock, and move to the UK, France, Germany, somewhere with a MUCH cheaper cost of living and better social net. At a high enough level, you could arguably quit your job and prop up your future salary from interest.

NPR was literally talking about this earlier in the morning, specifically within academia. I forget the speaker, but they cited that after Brexit, neighboring countries saw a rise in quality researchers who opted not to stay or study in the UK.

Honestly, even 2016 gives us some insight though and if I recall correctly, it never really caused significant brain drain. A little hard to measure people who never were here to begin with, but even my wife mentioned her reason for staying after the election and it’s because there’s still money to be made here.

Friends and family. They might even like their local community. Tons of reasons.

Yes, there are other options however it’s a balance of how hard it is vs what country is most convenient vs how many visas get granted.

I went from South America to Australia. The time zone and air travel distance sucks big time and matter when getting in touch with family. South American presence here is minimal so restaurants and culture are hard to find. But I’m not afraid my son will get killed while getting mugged. And that tips the balance even a bit more than my ability to have stable finances.

Only for as long as it takes for them to reach Canada.