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.

America is built from immigrants. Everyones family except native Americans are immigrants. Skilled professionals will always be wanted in their area of expertise.

Pay attention and be aware of any upcoming changes, but don’t work yourself up over Trump. It’s natural to be worried.

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.

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.

There is very little point for ANYONE to stay if they don’t have to (unless they want to fight for freedom like our ancestors had to). If you have a way of escaping, definitely take it.

Don’t give up before he starts. Pre-submitting will lose it all.

Do get light and transfer cash out.

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.