Why are Indian professionals opting for UK instead of US?
As uncertainty over the future of H-1B visa continues in US, more highly skilled professionals are looking at the United Kingdom as a back-up plan without giving up on their American ambitions, according to Indian-origin immigration lawyer Yash Dubal.Dubal, CEO and director of London-based A Y & J Solicitors, said his firm has seen a rise in enquiries from H-1B visa holders, particularly Indian engineers and researchers who have spent years waiting for US green cards.“Most of our enquiries from the US come from Indian engineers and researchers, often in their thirties and on a H-1B visa. Usually their spouses are on H-4 visa and they have US born children. They have been waiting on green cards for years. The Global Talent Visa is the first route they have looked at where their professional record actually translates into a timeline,” Dubal told The American Bazaar.The increase in interest comes as uncertainty surrounding the H-1B programme continues, including debate over a proposed $100,000 H-1B visa fee. Canada and Australia remain popular destinations for skilled migrants, but immigration experts say the UK’s ‘Global Talent Visa’ is emerging as another attractive option for professionals already working in the US. It was Introduced in 2020 as part of Britain’s post-Brexit immigration system. The Global Talent Visa is aimed at people recognised as leaders or potential leaders in their fields, or those who can demonstrate exceptional talent or promise.Unlike the Skilled Worker visa, it is linked to the individual rather than an employer. Applicants do not need a job offer or employer sponsorship, there is no minimum salary requirement, and visa holders are free to change jobs, work as freelancers, take up consultancy work or start a business.Dubal believes the biggest attraction is the shorter route to permanent settlement compared with the lengthy wait many Indian professionals face in the United States.He said: “The April 2026 Visa Bulletin set the EB-2 India date at July 2014, which means a fourteen-year wait for a green card. The UK Global Talent Visa gets you to settlement in three. It is not a more emotional decision than that. It is arithmetic. The clients I’m speaking to in San Francisco and Seattle are doing the same calculation.”The Global Talent Visa covers a range of professions, including digital technology, engineering, academia, research, natural and medical sciences, humanities, social sciences, and the arts. Applicants must first secure an endorsement from an approved UK body before applying for the visa.According to immigration advisers, the route differs significantly from the H-1B visa. It is evidence-based rather than lottery-based, has no annual cap, and for eligible applicants can lead to settlement in the UK in as little as three years.Dubal said many skilled professionals wrongly assume they do not qualify.“Indian engineers applying to us are often closer to qualifying than they assume. What I see most often now is families running parallel options. Indian H-1B holders are not abandoning the US plan. They are putting a UK plan alongside it, as a hedge. The choice between three years to UK settlement and another decade of uncertainty in the US becomes harder to defer once it is sitting on the page.”He said more people started looking at the UK as uncertainty around the H-1B programme continued, even after a court ruling on the proposed visa fee.“What changed in October [2025] is not policy alone. The political volatility around H-1B has not stopped, even with the recent court ruling on the hundred-thousand-dollar fee. Indian professionals are no longer treating uncertainty in the US as a temporary problem to wait out. They are treating it as a feature of the system and acting accordingly,” he said.For many H-1B holders, particularly Indian and Chinese nationals facing years of green card backlogs, Dubal believes the decision is no longer about choosing one country over another. Instead, more families are pursuing a UK option while keeping their long-term plans in US alive.
