American IT expertise is in high demand, and companies all over the globe are eager to recruit.

Deel is a worldwide HR and payroll provider; their latest tech migration report ranks the United States as the country with the second-highest number of tech workers employed elsewhere.

Positioned between India (with the most foreign IT professionals) and Britain (ranked third), it is in the middle of the pack.

The most popular destinations for American IT workers, both in terms of employment and relocation, are:

• Germany
• Canada
• United Kingdom
• The Netherlands
• Spain

U.S. tech workers typically work in software development, product management, or operations when they go abroad.

According to head of immigration at Deel, international managers are eager to recruit top IT talent from prestigious American colleges, startups, venture capital firms, and the likes of Google and others. They say that world business leaders are enamored with the “spirit of innovation” exhibited by American tech workers.

When American tech workers go overseas to work in operations, it’s usually because their employers are looking to bolster their global expansion efforts or bring in American best practices.

Reasons why American tech employees relocate

According to Sutherlin, tech layoffs in worldwide markets have been less severe than in the US. This suggests that more tech professionals who are unemployed or worried about their jobs may seek employment opportunities abroad. Following major political events, such as controversial Supreme Court judgments or recent U.S. elections, migration tends to increase.

Sutherlin argues that this “opens up an entire new scheme of working” when combined with the increasing number of digital nomad visas and the nomadic lifestyle.

Even highly compensated tech professionals in the US might struggle to command market-beating wages in other countries. Just so you know, Levels.fyi reports that software engineers in San Francisco earn an average of $250,000 a year, while their London counterparts earn around $119,000.

Sutherlin argues that Americans are drawn to places that provide better lifestyles, such as towns that are easy to walk about, have a reduced cost of living, and potentially even a tax system that makes your money go further.

Relocating to the United States is also highly sought after.

When it came to employing foreign workers in 2023, Deel found that Spain, the UK, and Canada were the top three destinations.

However, according to the visa petitions received by Deel in the past year, the United States remained the top choice for expat tech workers.

Particularly enthusiastic about working overseas in the US were highly competent individuals, including entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, and technical executives.

The most common reasons given by workers for applying for a visa are: (1) to obtain a new job, (2) to improve their quality of life, (3) to reunite with a spouse, (4) to obtain advantageous tax rates for skilled expats, and (5) to seek a pathway to citizenship.

Tech jobs aren’t the only ones where U.S. workers are in demand by multinational corporations. According to Deel’s latest global recruiting report, the amount of American workers hired by overseas companies increased by 62% in the past year.

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