America needs immigration reform, or it risks losing an entire generation of tech workers to countries like Canada, the UK, and Japan

• Mass layoffs across tech showed the vulnerability of immigrant employees on work visas.

• While the US still attracts talent, workers increasingly go to places like the UK or Canada.

• With other countries easing immigration for tech workers, the US may find itself lagging.

Varun Negandhi always intended to one day join the ranks of the US' great immigrant tech-startup founders.

But seven years into his career as a mechanical engineer in Detroit's legendary auto industry, he found out his work visa prevented him from starting up a company of his own. And applications for permanent residency, by way of the famed "green card," were in a queue lasting as long as a decade.

He started to look for a new country in which to settle his family that had friendlier visa terms — and found one very close to home.

"Being in Detroit and being on the border of US and Canada, I saw friends moving to Canada while working on an H-1B with their companies," he said. "Then it started to click that I can go to Canada, work with my company, but also have the freedom to start something on the side."

Negandhi's story epitomizes a trend that should trouble America and its storied tech industry. Foreign-born workers are increasingly going to countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Australia, where they're freer to find a job or start their own company without having to deal with America's immigration system, which many consider nightmarish and outdated.

As those tech workers look for greener pastures, that means America isn't getting the talent it desperately needs to keep up with China, India, and other countries, whose own tech sectors are blossoming into formidable rivals to Silicon Valley.

Without change, and fast, experts say this could mean an entire lost generation of tech talent for American tech.

"We have a shortage of highly skilled workers," Jason Finkelman, an immigration lawyer who specializes in work visas, said. "Therefore, the H-1B visa program and similar programs address that because you have so many US companies that are struggling to find the talent they need to remain competitive in the global marketplace."

And America's loss is proving a boon for other countries, who are explicitly going after the skilled tech workers who fall through the cracks of America's immigration system.

"Foreign countries have figured out ways to more aggressively attack top-tier tech talent," Hiba Anver, an immigration attorney with Erickson Immigration Group, told Insider. "The US as a destination is not No. 1 by as big of a margin as it has been in past years."

The US needs to move fast or risk being left behind

If the US wants to remain the top destination for tech talent, the government needs to make changes to the system, or it risks falling behind, experts said.

The country's immigration system is notoriously hard to navigate and has been backlogged for years. Tech companies have relied on student and work visas — including the F-1, L-1, and the limited H-1B programs — to keep recruiting top talent from around the world. H-1B visas, a favorite of the tech industry, are capped at 85,000 each year. That figure hasn't changed since the 1990s, even as Silicon Valley has matured into a global superpower.