Since the pandemic began, international travel has ground to a virtual halt. In addition to ruining our vacations, travel restrictions — imposed around the globe to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — have also dramatically slowed legal immigration into the US. 

In response to some of the first confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US, the Trump administration closed American borders to non-essential travel, slamming the door on almost all migrants.

The White House has also moved forward in its attempts to restrict legal immigration by slowing adjudication processes and hitting pause on green card processing.

But late last month, President Trump whipped up the Twitter-sphere with a late-night tweet proclaiming: “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” Leaving many to wonder, what’s next for US immigration?

Despite the fact that much of the immigration flow into the country had already stopped during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump’s April Twitter announcement that he would soon suspend immigration into the US shocked many immigration lawyers and employers who rely on hiring international talent. 

And that’s because America’s supply of tech workers has not kept pace with the skyrocketing demand.

In 2017, there were about 500,000 job openings in the tech industry and only about 60,000 computer science college graduates. An additional 85,000 tech roles are filled by international workers with H-1B visas.

And guess what? Job postings in the technology sector rose 32% in the first half of 2019, according to CompTIA. These numbers don’t add up — the US is left with a major gap in talent.

How can immigration lawyers keep clients happy?

So how can immigration attorneys help American employers hire talented foreign professionals while accounting for volatile post-pandemic immigration policies? 

Our current global crisis is challenging even the most seasoned immigration attorneys.

Many of these lawyers have been tasked by their clients to help bring the best and brightest foreign workers to the US But coronavirus and the Trump administration are forcing immigration attorneys to look beyond the typical US visas such as H-1Bs, L-1s, and more.

The creative solution is simple: professional employer organizations, specifically Canadian and Mexican PEOs.

What a professional employer organization can do

A professional employer organization — commonly referred to as a PEO — enables US-based companies to remotely hire an international professional in their home country as if the company had an official legal presence in that country.

The PEO hires the international worker and has the worker on their payroll, but the US company pays the salary and can offer its normal perks and benefits. All while paying the PEO a fee for facilitating and maintaining the international hire. 

PEOs are readily available and popular in both Canada and Mexico. And while we’ve talked about Canadian PEOs in past articles, let’s take a closer look at how PEOs give American employers better access to Mexican talent too.

Why Hire in Mexico

The idea of paying a fee to hire abroad may be off-putting, but there are benefits to using a PEO to hire in Mexico. Even considering the PEO fee, US employers can save a considerable amount of money hiring a tech professional from across America’s Southern border.

There are many reasons to hire in Mexico, but the three most important reasons are cost, proximity, and a high level of talent. Just a hop and a skip away from major US cities is a large pool of highly skilled workers, and they cost a whole lot less than their American counterparts.

The cost of living in Mexico is significantly lower than in the US, which accounts for lower wages. The average base salary of a developer in the US is about $80,000 a year. That same job pays about $18,000 a year in Tijuana, which has been growing as a tech hub for Mexican startups over the last ten years.

Proximity to the US makes it easy to facilitate in-person meetings and reduces multi-time zone complications. That proximity can build a useful cultural connection too because people who live on the US-Mexico border are more likely to be bilingual and bicultural. These cultural connections can make fitting in at an American company easier.

Worries that restrictive immigration policies could further shrink the supply of tech talent have been driving US companies south in their search for affordable engineers, designers, and other specialists.

Tech companies from Silicon Valley and other American cities are moving some technical operations to Mexico in search of highly skilled talent. But American employers can hire from Mexico’s vibrant talent pool without setting up shop across the border — this is where PEOs step in.

USMCA: what you need to know

For twenty-five years, NAFTA (now USMCA, which will go into effect on July 1, 2020) has given American, Mexican, and Canadian workers access to jobs across North America.

The United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) — an updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — simplifies the movement of workers from Canada and Mexico into the US. Despite a number of changes, the new agreement leaves NAFTA provisions for work visas untouched.

The NAFTA visa category is known as a TN visa and gives professionals in approximately sixty categories access to jobs across Canada, the US, or Mexico. A Canadian citizen or Mexican national with a job offer in certain professions and who meets the minimum education requirements can work in the United States for up to three years with opportunities to extend.

A TN visa is a great option for an American employer who wants a foreign employee on-site. But PEOs allow you to skip the complicated visa process and get straight to hiring exceptional talent.

And if you want to hire in Canada, Syndesus can help you

Has learning about Mexican PEOs piqued your interest in the possibility of stress-free remote hiring across the US border? Hiring in Canada can similarly be a breeze, open you up to an enormous pool of talent, and still result in cost savings for the employer.

Syndesus can walk you through the logistics of hiring a remote worker in Canada. Relying on Syndesus to hire Canadian talent is easier, cheaper, and faster than bringing a foreign national into the US on an H-1B or even a TN visa, especially during these uncertain times. 

Want to hear more? Book a consultation to chat about your hiring situation. Syndesus can help you expand your team with the world’s most talented technology professionals, but without the world’s most frustrating immigration system!