Kai Chen, a Canadian AI researcher working in Openai who lived in the US for 12 years, denied a green card, according to Noam Brown, a leading researcher in the company. To one Post in xBrown said Chen learned of the decision on Friday and must soon leave the country.
“It is deep about this one of the best AI researchers with whom I worked with […] refused an American green card, “Brown wrote.” A Canadian who has lived and contributed here for 12 years has to leave. We are in danger of the leadership of AI of America when we remove talent like this. ”
Another Openai employee, Dylan Hunn, stated in a position This Chen was “critical” for GPT-4.5, one of Openai’s AI models.
Green cards can deny All the reasonsAnd the decision will not cost Chen her job. To one monitoringBrown said Chen plans to work remotely from an Airbnb in Vancouver “to [the] Chaos hope to be settled. “But it is the last example of foreign talents facing high obstacles in life, work and study in the US under Trump.
Openai did not respond immediately to a request for comments. However, in a Post in X in July 2023Managing Director Sam Altman has asked for changes to facilitate immigrants to move and work in the US in “high skill
In a statement sent by e -mail after this story, an Openai spokesman said: “This application was filed at some point before our Openai employee and we did not participate in the case.
In the past few months, More than 1,700 international students in the USIncluding the AI researchers who have lived in the country for several years, they had been challenged by the situations of visa as part of an aggressive repression. While the government has accused some Of these students of support of Palestinian fighter groups or participation in “anti -Semitic” activities, others have targeted Minor legal violationssuch as accelerating tickets or other traffic violations.
On Friday, the Administration returned abruptly its cancellation for student visas. But the suspension can only be temporary. Government says he is working in a ”new system“For the revision and end of visas for international students.
Meanwhile, Trump administration has turned a skeptic eye to many green card applicants, Reportedly Applications for a legal permanent residence submitted by immigrants who granted refugee or asylum status. He has also received a harsh approach to Green Card holders perceived as “national security” threats, Holding and threatening several with expulsion.
AI laboratories such as Openai are largely based on foreign research talent. According to Shaun RalstonAn independent contractor providing support to Openai API customers, Openai has filed more than 80 H-1B visas applications and has funded over 100 visas since 2022.
The US just denied immigration to one of the main researchers behind Openai’s GPT-4.5. 🤦🏽♂* @Davidsacks
– Ali Partovi (@apartovi) April 25 2025
H-1B visas, favored by the technology industry, allow US companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in “special occupations” that require at least a university degree or equivalent. RecentlyImmigration officials have begun to issue “requests for evidence” on H-1bs and other employment-based immigration reports, demanding addresses and biometric data on change, some experts are concerned that it can lead to increased application files.
Immigrants have played an important role in contributing to the development of the US AI industry.
According to In a study by Georgetown’s Security and Emerging Technology Center, 66% of the 50 “most promising” AI -based AI companies on the Forbes 2019 “AI 50” list had an immigrant founder. An analysis of 2023 The National Institute of American Policy found that 70% of full -time postgraduate students in AI -related fields are international students.
Ashish Vaswani, who moved to the US to study computer science in the early 2000s, is one of the co-creators of the transformer, the AI architectural model who supports chatbots such as Chatgpt. One of the co -founders of Openai, Wojciech Zaremba, won his PhD in AI from NYU in a student visa.
US immigration policies, cuts in grant funding and hostility in some sciences have many researchers who are thinking of moving from the country. In response to a nature The poll of over 1,600 scientists, 75%, said they were thinking of leaving for jobs abroad.
Updated 5:08 PM Pacific: A statement was added by an Openai representative.
