All the announcements and press about H1-B Visa and other immigration policy related rule changes are causing unprecedented levels of stress and uncertainty among immigrants. As global politics drives increased protectionism and de-globalization, remote work technology and mindset can create a win-win for companies and employees.

When Amazon came along, there were regulations around what could be sold online…
When Uber came along, we had taxi unions and even regulations on fares in certain countries…
When Airbnb came along, housing society rules and regulations prohibited short term rentals…

When these companies launched, they were not ignorant of the regulatory framework, but believed in the value of their ideas enough to know that regulations one day will have to accommodate their business models.

Amazon can sell alcohol today in certain countries; governments have drafted new regulations for gig Uber drivers, and almost every housing society has a short-term rental framework…

A lot of chat around #h1bvisa suspension today – the politics of this topic aside, technology already exists to allow you to work from anywhere, therefore nullifying the whole concept of a physical location.

The #WorkFromAnywhere idea can actualize moving H1B folks back to their native countries in a win-win economic model for both, while also alleviating the visa stress.

There are two buckets of challenges here:

One is with the logistics: how do we manage compliance and legal aspects of such an arrangement – let’s assume we can solve these with a one-stop solution to solve all the nuts and bolts of all HR and legal services including getting a branded office in your colleagues’ native cities with local HR support.

The second one is more classic – timezone, building trust and rapport, engagement – now, the beauty with existing teammates is that you are already starting at an advantage having worked with them for a period of time.

Even if we were to think of these as problems with distributed work; would you not much rather spend time solving these than dealing with the stress and uncertainty of your legal status?

What do you think?