Talent Mobility Fund

If you’re thinking about the O-1A visa, start here. O1Pathways is a FREE AI tool to quickly assess your O-1A visa eligibility. If you don’t qualify right now, it can help you learn how strong your profile is. O1Pathways can help you answer questions like: ?? Does my membership in ‘X’ organization count for the O-1? ?? Does my work at ‘Y’ company help? ???? Is my research strong enough for me to get an O-1? We’ll be sharing much more about the O-1A in the coming weeks—so follow this page for updates, insights, and tools to help you along the way. The O-1 is not an option for everyone, but it might just be for you. Try it yourself at https://o1pathways.com

Productive day in Philadelphia co-hosting the O-1A Eligibility Tool Launch Event with International House Philadelphia and O1Pathways. Special thanks to all the candidates who attended along with Jonathan Grode who shared his expertise on the myriad of advantages of the O-1A path for skilled global talent. Awais Hussain has done an incredible job combining his personal experience and professional acumen to develop an innovative, world-class tool that helps individuals and companies attract and retain the world's top talent to the US workforce and I'm excited to see what's ahead as the tool gets adopted broadly across the US. I encourage folks in higher ed and workforce to share with their networks https://o1pathways.com/

At the Talent Mobility Fund, we believe a key to strengthening and sustaining America’s STEM ecosystem involves harnessing the incredible international STEM talent already here in the U.S., complementing U.S. workers. That’s why we’re proud to partner with inSpring, a state-of-the-art talent development operator transforming the education-to-career pipeline for international candidates and U.S. employers in high-demand fields. Through Regional Talent Hubs in Oklahoma, New York, South Carolina, and Alabama, inSpring is addressing the demand beyond available American workers for skilled STEM talent in advanced manufacturing, life sciences and healthcare —sectors critical to our economy.?InSpring is committed to launching foreign-born STEM grads of U.S. universities into these high-demand industries, ensuring the retention of this talent in our skilled workforce and driving economic growth in local communities. With TMF’s support, inSpring will enhance these hubs by building scalable programming that spans all three critical sectors and the full suite of legal immigration pathways, as well as launch new hubs, with a focus on regions w/ acute workforce challenges. This initiative includes deploying place-based and sector-based STEM Ambassadors to promote the employment and retention of foreign-born STEM graduates of U.S. universities in regional communities. TMF is proud to partner with inSpring on this transformative initiative and we look forward to seeing the impact of our collaboration. Want to dive deeper into how our partnership is expanding sustainable, long-term solutions for STEM talent retention in the United States? Read about TMF’s impact model here: https://lnkd.in/e6xV6uEq and inSpring’s full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/dyecEpyA

International STEM experts with STEM PhDs contributing to U.S. efforts to solve complex problems in emerging technologies? Yes please. Talent Beyond Boundaries announces a new effort to connect STEM PhDs who have been displaced by war with U.S. companies to complement U.S. workforce and innovate here. Are you a U.S. company engaged in critical and emerging fields? Do you represent such a company? Want to partner with TBB to use existing visa pathways available to individuals working in national interest endeavors?

There is important work happening at the state and local level to attract and retain international STEM talent. Don't miss this free upcoming webinar on October 23, moderated by Global Detroit discussing how local initiatives are connecting employers with the next generation of STEM talent. This webinar is for U.S. employers, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, industry groups and business associations, state and local government officials, international student offices, universities, international students and policymakers.

It’s been about 6 months since we launched our U.S. STEM Immigration Fast Grant challenge. ?? In that time, we've supported innovative projects that help to attract and retain STEM talent in the U.S. by maximizing underused immigration pathways such as the O-1A and J-1 Researcher visa. This week, we are excited to officially announce our first round of grant winners, which includes: Plymouth Migration Policy Institute Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration Cultural Vistas American Immigration Council Innovation Law Lab Global Detroit and Awais Hussain. Here are some examples of projects our talented grantees are working on with grant funding from TMF: Plymouth is scaling up their customer-focused software for O-1A and EB-1A visa prep. With over 100 O-1A approvals already, they are aiming for 725 O-1A and EB-1A petitions by year-end! Migration Policy Institute is conducting a study to assess the implementation of the 2022 O-1A, STEM OPT and NIW guidance by USCIS. Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration is leading an initiative to assist non-citizen students & alumni pursue employment in the U.S. post-graduation. This includes capacity-building services, a centralized online resource hub on immigration pathways, and a H-1B visa fellowship program. Check out our latest newsletter https://lnkd.in/eA_RsDUc to see the full list of projects we have funded and don’t forget to subscribe to stay informed on our work to make high-skilled immigration in America work better. A huge thank you to our partner Renaissance Philanthropy and our generous funders Open Philanthropy, Livelihood Impact Fund, and Founders Pledge. Your support is vital for improving high-skilled immigration in America. Have an idea for how to increase underused U.S. immigration pathways for STEM talent? We continue to seek grant proposals for our U.S. STEM immigration track and encourage you to apply! Learn more about our application process on www.talentmobility.fund.

We are thrilled to see the launch of ResearcherUSA.com this week - a go-to resource on the STEM Research Initiative. This comprehensive website provides U.S. companies, higher education institutions, immigration attorneys, and STEM experts with essential information and resources on how to leverage the J-1 Research visa to accelerate STEM research in the U.S. Explore the site today and unlock a wealth of information and resources to propel your STEM research initiatives forward: https://lnkd.in/gjdm_Y8t A big congratulations to American Immigration Council, Cultural Vistas, Institute of International Education and CIEE Council on International Educational Exchange for developing this important resource.

Climate Week is underway here in NYC! Talent Mobility Fund hosted a dynamic panel this week in collaboration with Niskanen Center and Open Society Foundations to tackle a pressing issue: the green transition is generating an unprecedented demand for workers to build the infrastructure needed for climate resilience—but there's a significant skills gap! Our panelists delved into the challenges and immense opportunities this situation presents, emphasizing how global mobility can help bridge these talent shortages and help strengthen climate resilience in communities worldwide.? A big thank you to Jason Wendle, Johann Harnoss, Kristie De Pe?a, Laurence H., and Rebekah Smith for participating in our panel discussion. If you missed our discussion, don’t worry! Check out our white paper for actionable insights: https://lnkd.in/eanu59xk #ClimateWeek #greenmobility #climatefunders

The race to a green transition has created an unprecedented demand for workers to build the infrastructure we need to mitigate and adapt to climate change. From renewable energy to energy-efficient construction to HVAC retrofitting –?every sector needs more talent to meet global climate goals. Labor migration is fast becoming a critical solution, not only filling these talent gaps but also increasing climate resilience in communities around the world. Join the Talent Mobility Fund, Niskanen Center, and Open Society Foundations at Climate Week NYC on September 23rd as we explore how international collaboration can help ensure the global workforce is equipped to drive the climate solutions of tomorrow. Register here:?https://lnkd.in/dwR63pi5

There are a lot of philanthropies that care about immigration. But less than 0.5% of internationally-focused philanthropy and 0.4% of ODA goes towards the economic inclusion of migrants. And of this funding, almost none is focused on proactively helping people move to opportunity. We’re excited to share our new white paper about philanthropy and the future of immigration. Here are our main takeaways: 1?? Immigration has huge social returns for receiving countries, sending countries, and migrants. 2?? Despite the economic benefits, political polarization complicates the chances of passage for any comprehensive immigration reform in Western countries. 3?? Even in the absence of policy change, high-income countries have opened up pathways for skilled migrants to address specific national needs – and these pathways remain massively underutilized. 4?? Philanthropies can generate vast social returns by increasing the uptake of existing immigration pathways.