MENLO PARK, Calif.—One of California’s newest residents recently stepped off a plane after a 16-hour flight from New Delhi. He was at work within two hours.
“We paid a lot of money to get him here so we want our return on investment,” quipped Darren Kimura, CEO of a Silicon Valley startup called AI Squared. His just-arrived chief technology officer, Nagendra “Nag” Dhanakeerthi, settled into a meeting with a customer.
California is growing again because of immigrants like Dhanakeerthi. The state’s population rose 0.6% in 2024, reaching 39.43 million by adding almost a quarter-million people, according to Census Bureau estimates.
State leaders say California’s growth belies the narrative that it is in permanent decline. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, often seen as a potential presidential contender, is publicly touting the population bump.
“As the villain said in the Bond movie, we have ‘a nasty habit of surviving,’” said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state’s Department of Finance.
Yet California’s growth is tenuous. Without immigration, it would have shrunk significantly in the past year. Net immigration rebounded to more than 300,000 people in 2024, after plunging to as few as 44,000 in the worst year of the pandemic.
How President Trump’s immigration policies will affect this growth remains a crucial question.
Migrant crossings along the California-Mexico border have nearly ceased. But California attracts immigrants from all over the world. Since 2010, the state has added 2.7 million immigrants, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Fully half have come from Asia, and slightly more than a third from Latin America.
One driver of the influx: the H-1B visa program, which tech employers use to recruit talent. In 2024, it brought nearly 79,000 skilled workers to California, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
Tech leaders—including Elon Musk—defend H-1B visas as essential, but some MAGA supporters argue companies should be forced to hire American workers. Trump so far has supported the program, which was created by Congress in 1990.
Applications for H-1B visas, however, have fallen by 25% from a year ago because of higher fees and companies’ fears that the Trump administration will be stricter. Though that won’t mean the program is shrinking—it is always oversubscribed—the decrease could indicate a wider slowdown in immigration amid a softer labor market.
Dhanakeerthi arrived on an O-1A visa, reserved for “extraordinary” people in their fields. But Kimura has a second visa applicant in India who is still navigating the O-1A application process.
“I’m a little worried about him,” Kimura said, explaining that the applicant’s job, chief customer officer, is more difficult to define.
California isn’t alone in depending on immigrants. Sixteen states wouldn’t have grown without them last year.
In 38 states and the District of Columbia, immigration surpassed domestic migration. In Kansas, for example, immigrants help provide labor for meatpacking and farming, according to Gov. Laura Kelly.
“We need that workforce,” the Democratic leader said in an interview. “We have to have a way to allow folks to come into our country legally while keeping our border secure.”
California symbolized coastal struggles in recent years. The pandemic throttled immigration, drove away remote workers and slowed the arrival of new workers and students. By 2022, the state had lost more than 400,000 residents, equaling the population of Oakland.
The rebound in immigration is fueling the recent return to growth, though not entirely.
Domestic migration—people moving to and from other states—also plays a role. The outflow has slowed as more employers require on-site work and growth resumes in industries such as tourism, construction and warehousing.
Also a positive for California: It has more births than deaths—a surplus of 110,000 in the most recent year. This isn’t the case for a third of states, making their future prospects for growth more uncertain.
But California remains the state most vulnerable to immigration-policy shifts. More than a quarter of its population is foreign-born, the largest share nationwide, according to 2023 census data. Most are here legally. (About 17% of the state’s immigrants were undocumented in 2022, according to estimates from the Pew Research Center.)
Necessity drove Silicon Valley’s reliance on foreign labor. In the 1990s, Apple turned to India for engineers because of a shortage of American ones, said Satjiv Chahil, the company’s global marketing chief at the time.
There are “still not enough homegrown engineers,” said Chahil, a longtime Valley investor and innovator.
At a recent San Francisco tech conference Chahil attended, an attendee said he planned to set up his new company in Europe because of tighter U.S. immigration policies. “People are sort of spooked because they hear stories about harassment at airports and things like that,” Chahil added.
Still, many U.S. companies deem seeking foreign talent their best option.
AI Squared, situated in a glass building in an office park, bustles with immigrants—and California vibes.
“Hey, what’s up, man?” Kimura asked Dhanakeerthi, after the new arrival stepped through the doors on May 16.
Kimura led Dhanakeerthi through the modern space, featuring whiteboards, cubbyholes and a ping-pong table. He showed him the outdoor patio with its lemon tree.
“Real fruit on the trees and stuff,” Kimura assured him. “You can just sit here, hang out. You can even reserve this for parties.”
Dhanakeerthi smiled and nodded.
Dhanakeerthi, 39 years old, built his technology career at startups in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) and Singapore. Last year, he co-founded a data venture for AI programs and became its chief technology officer. AI Squared, in California, quickly acquired the venture and named him head of technology.
As the company grew, he and Kimura realized he needed to work from Menlo Park, not Bengaluru—with its roughly 12-hour time difference. “It’s really hard to do when you’re not in person,” Kimura explained. “You know, to spend the time to really be diving into these discussions.”
Dhanakeerthi found it frustrating to help manage the company via daily Microsoft Teams conversations. “You can’t do spontaneous whiteboarding or easily collaborate visually,” he said. “Even aiming the camera becomes a hassle.”
So AI Squared applied for a visa to relocate its CTO to California. The six-month process cost the company about $30,000.
Just two weeks before moving, Dhanakeerthi encountered a final hurdle: He had to appear before a U.S. Consulate officer and answer the question: “Why do you think you are extraordinary?”
This query tests the visa’s core requirement: that applicants must possess “an extraordinary ability” in their field.
At the consulate counter, Dhanakeerthi tried to calm his nerves. “I was confident, but at the same time you do hear a lot of rejections,” he recalled.
In his answer, he highlighted his ingenuity. “I shared how I’ve led teams across geographies and how the product I built got acquired by AI Squared,” he said.
Afterward, the officer delivered the good news: His visa was approved, along with one for his 37-year-old wife, Sindhuja Ravichandran. That evening, they celebrated with family and friends and toasted to new beginnings.
Even with visas in hand, Dhanakeerthi didn’t truly relax until the pair cleared U.S. Customs at San Francisco International Airport after their marathon flight.
“Welcome to the U.S.,” a smiling agent told him.
“I was a bit nervous,” Dhanakeerthi confessed moments later as he pushed a cart, overflowing with luggage, through the reception lobby. But “we made it, and we’re here,” he said with a weary grin.
The couple piled into a compact SUV for the half-hour drive down Highway 101 to AI Squared. At a Starbucks stop, they faced their first culture shock: no South Indian-style filter coffee with hot milk and sugar. They ordered cappuccinos instead—but were surprised by the 10-minute wait. “I guess they’re not used to them?” his wife said.
Enthusiastic co-workers greeted Dhanakeerthi at AI Squared, housed in a bright two-story building. “There he is, good to see you,” exclaimed account executive Stefan Cisneros, extending a hand. “We’re on the same time zone.”
“It’s good to not see him in a box,” added controller May Hua, herself a Vietnamese immigrant.
A bit later, the couple headed to the San Jose home of a close Indian friend, Arjun Urs. “It’s a great country to be in, to make the American dream come true,” Urs told them before a homemade South Indian lunch of pulao and raita.
The couple will now search for a home and schools for their two young daughters. Ravichandran plans to return temporarily to Bengaluru and will reunite with him in California once things are arranged.
Appearing jet-lagged but joyful, she leaned back on a sofa and said, “We feel right at home.”
Write to Jim Carlton at Jim.Carlton@wsj.com and Paul Overberg at paul.overberg@wsj.com
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