> Apparently Australia is actually the only country with net immigration from the US.
The E3 visas help with that. Otherwise as a tech worker you're generally stuck with either a H1B (which is a lottery) as a new hire, or L1B (which requires working for the company for a year) as an existing employee.
Not all of the allocated E3 visa slots get used though, so IIRC, there's been continued discussions on Irish citizens being offered the remainder for the last few years, but nothing concrete yet.
Are tech workers not eligible for EB-2/EB-3? I haven't gone through the process myself, but from a number of people I know I have, it seems pretty automatic for my EU citizen contacts to get US visas compared to the drama the process causes for Indians (my understanding is that this is due to many limits being per-country, but not considering population)
It's not really practical to move to the US on an EB-2/EB-3 green card since even at best its an 18 month process if you're not from one of the countries that reached its per country limit, so you're unlikely to find an employer to sponsor you to start a job so far in the future.
So usually what happens is you move over on an H-1B but those are subject to an annual cap for which you only have a 1/4 chance of being selected unless you work for a cap-exempt non-profit employer.
Employers will usually sponsor a green card after you start working for them.
The E3 visas help with that. Otherwise as a tech worker you're generally stuck with either a H1B (which is a lottery) as a new hire, or L1B (which requires working for the company for a year) as an existing employee.
Not all of the allocated E3 visa slots get used though, so IIRC, there's been continued discussions on Irish citizens being offered the remainder for the last few years, but nothing concrete yet.