| Hi there, it's Shelly. Most of the headlines around President Trump's suspension of immigrant visas last month centered on H-1Bs. The classification, popular in Silicon Valley, is a key source of workers for America's largest tech companies. But there's another category that Trump suspended at the same time: L visas, which are meant for executives and specialized employees at foreign companies. For example, a Volkswagen AG boss could visit the German automaker's Tennessee car plant, or a Sony Corp. exec could spend time with some of the Japanese tech company's 15,000 U.S. employees. And just like H-1Bs, the suspension of L-1 visas is likely to have an adverse impact on the tech industry. Trump's visa restrictions were positioned as a way to protect American jobs at a time of record-high unemployment. But the new rules, which run through the end of this year, will not only prevent many immigrants from getting jobs, they'll also affect thousands of people who already have them. Some current H-1B holders found themselves stranded overseas after departing for what were supposed to be routine trips, and because of the L-1 restrictions, foreign execs are finding new limits on visits to the U.S. Experts have warned that the restrictions could chill new investment, slow hiring even more and dampen economic growth. Take Omer Kucukdere, chief executive officer of Berlin-based online realtor Nestpick Global Services GmbH, who came to the U.S. in March to complete a multimillion-dollar acquisition of real estate marketplace Sublet.com. Kucukdere planned on bringing his co-founder and other key executives to the U.S. from Germany to oversee the integration. The company has raised a total of $15 million in venture capital funding, and Nestpick wanted to hire up to 50 American workers in its New Jersey and California offices. Now, thanks to the new restrictions, Kucukdere's team can't get visas to come to the U.S. And Kucukdere won't be let back into the country if he returns to Germany from New York, where he is now. That means that those 50 U.S. jobs might not be happening either. Instead, Nestpick is now considering moving its North American headquarters to Toronto. Kucukdere said Canada has been wooing him with offers of free office space and access to capital. Toronto wasn't his first choice. Kucukdere was drawn to the U.S. for the spoils that could come from a huge consumer market and the chance to work with experienced VCs, who also promised him that investment dollars would follow once he landed stateside. He's not so sure now. "When you're building a global business, you need your talent to be able to travel freely across borders," he said. Study after study has shown that letting workers and businesses move internationally with ease is a net creator of growth and opportunity. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently attributed half of the growth in America's workforce over the last two decades to immigrants and their children, citing the Pew Research Center. Without those workers, it said, the U.S. economy will struggle to grow. Tech in particular is an example of the job-creating benefits of immigration. Virtually all the industry's largest companies—including Google, Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc.—had first- or second-generation immigrants on the founding team. Now, U.S. immigration rules are chipping away at the country's allure for global founders. "Building a business in Silicon Valley might have been the wisest thing to do 10 years ago," Kucukdere said. "But today the U.S. is sending a clear signal to look elsewhere." —Shelly Banjo | 
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