It’s clear that the incoming Trump Administration is planning changes to the U.S. immigration system.

Based on the experience of Trump’s first term, we expect the changes to be extensive and that they will target illegal and legal immigration, primarily through the mechanism of executive action. For example, the MPI summarises as follows:

“Over the course of four years, the Trump administration set an unprecedented pace for executive action on immigration, enacting 472 administrative changes that dismantled and reconstructed many elements of the U.S. immigration system. Humanitarian protections were severely diminished. The U.S.-Mexico border became more closed off. Immigration enforcement appeared more random. And legal immigration became out of reach for many. All of this was accomplished nearly exclusively by the executive branch, with sweeping presidential proclamations and executive orders, departmental policy guidance, and hundreds of small, technical adjustments.”

If you are preparing to expand your business into the United States, what do changes to the US immigration system mean for you? Here are our top tips for making your plans Trump-ready:

1. Buy American Hire American (BAHA) – for every work visa applicant, prepare to demonstrate that you could not hire an American for the position. BAHA was a policy of the previous Trump administration that we can expect to return.
2. Think about hiring US workers at an early stage in US operations, or even adding an US director to your US board. This can smooth the path for many aspects of early-stage development and improve the viability of US work visas for executives and high-level managers.
3. Lengthen your estimated timeframes – for every visa process, expect delays and challenges. If a visa currently takes between two and four months to obtain, add three months to your estimate.
4. Develop connections with U.S. foreign direct investment resources – The US Commerce Department., as well as state and local economic development agencies, are well-placed to assist businesses in their go-to-market strategies, including some modest support with US visa processes (e.g., providing letters of support where they see it as being advantageous to their interests).
5. Explore US Congressional contacts – Members of Congress have the capacity to assist US companies and US constituents with some aspects of US visa processes (e.g., obtaining information from US agencies).
6. Partner with US immigration counsel – seek advice from counsel at the earliest stages of developing your US market strategy, as even the choices relating to location, hiring, incorporation, share allocation, and business development activities may have implications for the viability of work visa applications down the line.

There will be a top-down shift in approach to US engagement with the rest of the world, focusing on putting “America first”. Looking through this lens and understanding what the various executive agencies that administer the US immigration system are looking for will save you time, money and pain.

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