Thread by @erenbali

1/ I came to this country 10 years ago on an H1B visa. In this period I started 2 companies: @udemy and @CarbonHealth. Udemy now employs ~700 people, provides ongoing income to 50k instructors and improves employability of tens of millions of Americans by helping close skill gaps

2/ @CarbonHealth employs ~350 ppl and will create 10s of thousands of jobs + health care access in many underserved communities. In addition to working on the frontlines of the pandemic, we have been helping companies reopen safely and thus retain employees.

3/ And this is not just about the immigrant founders. There are million of employees on work visas that are vital to the success of many tech companies. The recent ban on H1, L and J visas will do nothing but hurt companies and cause increased unemployment
whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

4/ I got my H1B right after the economic crisis of 2009. The company I was working at (Speeddate) first applied for a visa in 2008. There were 150k visa applications for the global quota of 85k high-skill workers. I lost in the lottery and had to continue to work from Turkey.

5/ But after the crisis, US demand for external talent went down to 10k so I got a visa in 2009. I was a critical employee in the company, so they wanted me in the Silicon Valley HQ even though it meant paying a higher salary and spending 2 years + $10k in visa applications.

6/ One of the biggest misconceptions about H1 visas is that companies use them to bring cheap labor. It takes ~18 months to bring someone with a work visa and you have to pay market salaries (~$130k min for engineers in Silicon Valley) in addition to costly paperwork/relocation.

7/ Companies apply for H1 visas because certain roles are hard to fill locally and being able to source talent globally makes them more competitive.

8/ Imagine a sports team was only allowed to hire players from its town. It would have no chance competing with teams that bring players from across the world.

9/ Unlike sports teams, companies don’t have a fixed number of employees so a more successful company means more employees. And majority of those employees will be hired locally.

10/ I had originally started Udemy in Turkey in 2007 and failed miserably. The experience I got in Silicon Valley along with the resources and support here allowed me to give it another shot, and now Udemy is a $2b company.

11/ But even after employing 100s of ppl, I wasn’t able to apply for a green card at Udemy since I was the founder. Luckily I received a waiver for the national interest of my work in 2015 and got permanent residency in 2015. A year before Trump took office.

12/ I am sad to see the sour change in America's approach to immigration. I am outraged that the pandemic is being used to push an isolationist agenda. I am outraged because immigrants who helped build this economy are now being used to divert the attention of people losing jobs.

13/ The unemployment of 40 million people won't be fixed by cutting 85k H1 applications. All it will do is strip companies from valuable talent in this crucial time.

We won’t be able to recover the economy with short-sighted moves like this.