This is a very troubling development for the U.S. artificial intelligence sector. Just in the last few months, upwards of 1,700 international students have faced complications with their visa statuses. Kai Chen, a Canadian AI researcher formerly at OpenAI, is one of those who left. His green card application was just denied. This decision forces him to leave the country after 12 years of residency, highlighting growing concerns about immigration policies under the current administration.
At the same time, the U.S. government is effectively canceling the visas of thousands of AI researchers. Each of these experts have helped shaped our industry in meaningful ways. This trend has set off alarm bells in academia and around the country. Not to mention that many of the key players behind the rapid development of AI technologies are themselves immigrants. Rumors suggest that Noam Brown, rabid AI researcher at OpenAI, single handedly ensured that Kai Chen got the bad news on a Friday. This announcement has added fuel to the fire of worry regarding immigration policy for American and foreign tech workers.
“This is deeply concerning that one of the best AI researchers I’ve worked with […] was denied a U.S. green card,” Brown stated.
Chen’s situation is not isolated. The Trump administration has adopted a skeptical stance toward many green card applicants, especially those seeking legal permanent residency after being granted refugee or asylum status. These abrupt policy reversals have injected confusion and anxiety for the hundreds of thousands of international students and researchers currently in the United States.
The statistics lay bare just how important this international talent has been for the booming AI sector. Even more surprising, nearly 70% of full-time graduate students in similar fields are non-U.S. citizens. Last year, the organization filed for over 80 applications for H1-B visas and has sponsored over 100 visas since 2022.
People like Chen and others are struggling against tremendous odds at this moment. This is a surprise at a time when many in the technology sector are calling for less restrictive immigration policies. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman underscored the need for these reforms as part of a larger vision for high-skill immigration. He explained his reasoning in a post on X last year.
“One of the easiest policy wins I can imagine for the U.S. is to reform high-skill immigration,” Altman wrote. Retaining this fact—that so many of the most talented people in the world want to be here—is the hardest-won gift; embracing them is the key to keeping it that way. Tough to restore this once it’s gone.”
Kai Chen preparing to move permanently into an Airbnb in Vancouver while he works remotely from there. His intention is to work remotely and continue navigating the challenges of his immigration status. This transition underscores the deep challenges experienced by AI practitioners across the U.S. Stringent immigration policies undermine their potential to contribute productive lives.
Yet the broader context of the policy and immigration landscape has roiled the debate over the future of the U.S. AI industry. Pioneers of the field such as Ashish Vaswani and Wojciech Zaremba are said to have encountered similar challenges in their journeys. They later immigrated to the U.S. on student visas to study computer science and eventually produced groundbreaking advances in AI.