LA’s Ukrainian Community Seeks More Visas for Country’s Tech Workers

Pat Maio
Pat Maio has held various reporting and editorial management positions over the past 25 years, having specialized in business and government reporting. He has held reporting jobs with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Orange County Register, Dow Jones News and other newspapers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
LA’s Ukrainian Community Seeks More Visas for Country’s Tech Workers
Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has rocked the latter’s fledgling tech and venture capital landscape, and prompted calls from Ukrainian community leaders in Los Angeles to expand the H-1B visa program to accommodate possible refugees.

“We need to get people out of Ukraine and get them working,” Laryssa Reifel, president of the Ukrainian Culture Center in East Hollywood, told dot.LA.


To that end, Reifel said that she and other leaders in the city’s Ukrainian community are expected to meet in coming days with Rep. Adam Schiff—the Democrat who represents California’s 28th congressional district and chairs the House Intelligence Committee—to lobby for expanded hiring practices by U.S. companies offering H-1B visas.

“If we are staring down the precipice of 5 million refugees hitting the Polish border trying to escape Russian oppression—and that’s if—then you are talking about potentially creating visas for millions of people to go to a myriad of countries, most of which are likely to be NATO countries,” said Reifel, a first-generation Ukrainian-American and one of roughly 112,000 people of Ukrainian descent who call California home. “One of those nations is likely to be the U.S., in which case the kind of visa you might open up for them is the H-1B.”

In a statement to dot.LA, Schiff said the U.S. “has a moral duty to help civilians who are now in harm’s way to find safe harbor.”

“I will work to support efforts to resettle Ukrainian refugees here in the United States, in California, and in Los Angeles, through both new and existing avenues such as visa programs, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress on a bipartisan basis,” Schiff said.

The H-1B visa program is somewhat of a political hot potato in the U.S.—with detractors long arguing for tighter caps on how many workers should be granted visas, and where they should come from. Tech industry employers, on the other hand, have lobbied for looser restrictions given difficulties encountered in hiring U.S.-trained professionals in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

For the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the U.S. has selected nearly 132,000 H-1B visa applicants from around the globe, with specific caps imposed on how many people per country can come to the U.S. under the temporary work program. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, some of the largest local tech employers of H-1B visa workers include video game developer Activision Blizzard, social media platforms Snap and TikTok, electric automaker Rivian and Disney-owned streaming service Hulu.

As the military conflict in Ukraine escalates, Reifel wants the U.S. to considerably boost the number of H-1B workers who can arrive from the country. Only 548 Ukraine-born applicants petitioned for H-1B visas in the 2019 fiscal year—roughly 0.1% of the approximately 421,000 people who applied globally, and well behind the likes of India (approx. 314,000 petitions) and mainland China (approx. 50,000 petitions).

Reifel said ramping up the number of visas granted to Ukrainian workers is important given deteriorating conditions in the country that are impacting the Ukraine-based employees of U.S. firms. She said she’s aware of “a number of companies in Southern California and in Silicon Valley, in particular, who have employees in Ukraine who are in distress”—though she declined to identify which companies, citing fear of retribution to them and their workers in Ukraine by Russian aggressors.

Despite a deep pool of tech talent, Ukraine’s startup scene remains small compared to other European countries. Last year saw 28 venture capital-backed companies headquartered in Ukraine raise a combined $10.4 million in funding, according to PitchBook data.

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🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday Los Angeles!

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🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

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LA Venture Funds


    ✨ Featured Event ✨

    LA TECH CEO SUMMIT

    LA’s tech leadership is set to reunite after a long break! This two day summit will focus on building strong connections, sharing insights, and fortifying the local tech community.

    Learn More Here

    Register Here


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    Happy Long Weekend Los Angeles!

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    LA Companies

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      ✨ Featured Event ✨

      LA TECH CEO SUMMIT

      LA’s tech leadership is set to reunite after a long break! This two day summit will focus on building strong connections, sharing insights, and fortifying the local tech community.

      Learn More Here

      Register Here


      Download the dot.LA App

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      Image Source: iEQ9

      Enneagram

      The Enneagram test is a sophisticated personality assessment that categorizes individuals into nine distinct personality types, each defined by unique motivations, fears,and behavioral patterns. This holistic approach enhances team dynamics in a business setting by fostering self-awareness, improving communication, and facilitating conflict resolution among team members. By understanding different personality types, teams can optimize their composition, tailor professional development, and create a more empathetic and collaborative environment. This framework not only helps leaders adapt their styles to better support diverse team members but also promotes inclusivity and effective collaboration, ultimately leading to improved team performance, productivity, and retention.

      Resources:iEQ9. We recommend getting an Enneagram coach to get the most out of the results.

      Key Features: Focus on core motivations. Accounts for personality shifts under stress or growth. Offers practical, actionable guidance for personal growth. Uses a dynamic, adaptive questioning approach. Claims 95% accuracy rate through advanced techniques.


      Image Source: DiSC Profile

      DiSC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness)

      The DiSC assessment is a widely used behavioral analysis tool that categorizes individuals into four primary personality types: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. For businesses, DiSC provides valuable insights into employees' communication styles, work preferences, and motivations. By understanding these behavioral tendencies, teams can improve collaboration, reduce conflicts, and enhance overall productivity. Implementing DiSC in a business setting can lead to more effective leadership, tailored communication strategies, and optimized task allocation based on individual strengths.

      Resources:DiSC Profile.

      Key Features: Designed specifically for workplace applications. Focuses on observable behaviors rather than psychological traits. Widely researched and validated over 40+ years. Provides practical strategies for improving interactions.


      Image Source: The Myers-Briggs Company

      The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

      The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a widely used personality assessment tool that categorizes individuals into 16 distinct personality types based on four dichotomies: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. For businesses, the MBTI provides valuable insights into employees' communication styles, decision-making processes, and work preferences.This helps promote a more productive workplace, and enables employees to become involved in more meaningful ways, all while leveraging everyone’s unique strengths.

      Resources:The Myers-Briggs Company.

      Key Features: Focuses on preferences rather than traits. Focuses on how people perceive and judge information. Widely used in business and career counseling


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