Most Big Tech companies have offices in other rich countries like Britain or Canada.

You will have a ridiculously high salary rather than a garangutan SV salary, but it's worth not getting stuck in a Bay Area traffic gridlock every day while worrying about whether you'll be allowed to go back to the country after renewing your H1-B.

Years ago made the decision to stay permanently the European Big Tech office which I was going to stay temporarily, and I'm much happier for it.

Well, these big companies are willing to hire these people outside US which means the job in the US goes away.

Money is not comparable to peace of mind. With a stable government ( like under Obama or even Bush), you can assume that your visa is safe and will be handles in a logical way. Now its just gambling.

Worst case you go back to your home country, it's still a pretty good gamble for a lot of people.

Not really when their kids are US citizens while they arent.

What's the upside? Paying 1/4 of your salary for low-grade healthcare with a $10k deductible?

Getting treated like a second class human being by even "liberal minded" folk simply due to an accent and the lack of hip phrasology "like, I KNOW! I CAN'T EVEN, OMG"

Being kept at arms length for decades even after putting enormous amounts of money in escrow and submitting piles of paperwork just to get the slightest hope of a visa appointment at your local US consulate, let alone entering the Green Card Lottery?

It's over-rated, over-ripe, and the "Land of Opportunity" is now the "Go away, we have self-inflicted problems we will likely blame you for" land.

Flag this if you want, but I have direct personal experience in many many countries and I come from the states, so I'm not talking out of my behind. We are the meanest country on earth right now. That's why I left. (well, actually it was the Iraqi invasion, Guantanamo Bay, and the ongoing activities in central Asia coupled with the new-speak that even the Dem-aligned rags were pushing, NYT, WaPo "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and wars on emotions and such... but see, this is related: it's about being mean and making others pay with their lives for ones ideological comfort zone, etc.)

I understand your concerns, although there is some hyperbole.

I was just pointing that the reason a lot of skilled h-1bs still come and stay despite the issues is because the salaries at some companies are just really damn good compared to what they'd make at their home countries.