Why Indian Talents Thrive in Silicon Valley and What Recruiters Can Do About it

As some immigrants find it increasingly hard to get a working or permanent resident visa in the United States, the opportunities for another group seem to be wide open for them: Indian talents. Educated and highly skilled Indian talents have always been sought after by companies in the U.S. Global mobility managers need to see if they can intensify their own quest for highly qualified Indian assignees.

According to a 2017 report by the Migration Policy, they compose about 63 percent of the 43.3 million population classified as “foreign born.” That also makes them the second largest immigrant group, next only to Mexicans. Many are regarded highly because of their in-demand skills, university education, and English communication skills. The latter is an understatement, but among more recent Asian-born immigrants in the U.S, they have the strongest communication skills.

Not surprisingly, because many of their core strengths lie in the so-called STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), numerous Indian professionals find themselves employed in the tech companies in Northern California and Silicon Valley.

Here are a few of the world-changing giants with CEOs born and raised in India, some of them listed by Gadgets Now: Francisco D’Souza, Cognizant; Sanjay Jha, Global Foundries; George Kurian, NetApp; Satya Nadella, Microsoft; Shantanu Narayan, Adobe; Dinesh Paliwal, Harman International; Sundar Pichai,Google; Rajeev Suri, Nokia; Ashok Vemuri, Conduit Inc, and the energetic Naveen Jain of Viome, the leading microbiome-testing company.

These numbers can still grow in the near future because many American property developers, seeking investors, have targeted Indian nationals who are qualified to avail of the golden or EB-5 Visa.

This visa grants green cards or permanent resident visas to foreign nationals who can invest $500,000 into a U.S. business. Chinese immigrants and businessmen have cornered this lot the past decade, but there has been a backlog of visas to be processed.

According to Quartz India, this has opened doors for Indian talents who now realize they have a higher chance of emigrating to the U.S. as long as they qualify for the EB-5 visa.

Global mobility managers looking for assignees from India, or talents with excellent STEM credentials, can start looking in this direction. What makes it easier is that many of these potential Indian investors are already in the U.S., and not based outside the country.

Many of them are professionals working in American companies, and would jump at the opportunity to make the necessary investment.

Others are students taking their degrees in American universities. Some affluent parents are known to shell out the money if it means increasing their children’s chances of building a life in the U.S. after graduation. In either case, the EB-5 visa would have a shorter processing time than the more commonly known H-1B visa.

How can global mobility managers sift through this widening stream of immigration that promises more Indian talents? Networking with embassies and business associations that are related to India could help. A quick research on universities with a heavy Indian population is another option. Then there can be discreet inquiries made to friends or through social media.

There are opportunities for discovering and signing talents here. The golden visa that Indian nationals aspire to can lead toward hiring of rock-solid diamond-calibre talent. It can be a win-win situation for all parties concerned.