New USCIS rules on green cards hit the AI tech sector hard; Andrew Ng and Paul Graham jointly criticize them. The post garnered 5.7 million views in just 24 hours.

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On May 22, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that most temporary visa holders in the U.S. must leave the country before applying for a green card, sparking an unprecedented wave of criticism from the tech community. Among those affected are top-tier AI researchers and engineers holding O-1 visas for “persons with extraordinary ability.” Once they apply for a green card, they’re required to immediately depart the U.S. and return home while awaiting a consular appointment; analysts suggest Indian applicants could face waiting periods lasting decades. Throughout this entire application process, they’re barred from working in the U.S. Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, described this move as a “reckless blow” against lawful immigrants, warning it would undermine America’s competitiveness in the AI sector. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, questioned whether AI researchers would now be forced to leave the country. Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, commented, “This will only accelerate AI development outside the U.S.” One PhD researcher who’s worked in AI and computer science in the U.S. for nearly a decade wrote, “It feels like the American Dream is being taken away.” Another user referenced the seminal paper “Attention Is All You Need,” noting that seven out of its eight authors hail from countries such as India, the UK, Canada, and Ukraine; they argued that without retaining top foreign talent, similar groundbreaking achievements would become increasingly rare. Within 24 hours, discussions related to this issue on X garnered over 5.7 million views.

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