Administration Creates A Hack For A Entrepreneur's Immigration Visa
from the innovation-for-innovation dept
For many, many years we've talked about why the US should have an entrepreneur's visa to let in smart entrepreneurs who are able to build companies and create jobs in the US, rather than kicking out the very people who are helping to build out the US economy. However, because immigration is such a touchy issue, attempts to do so via Congress have gone nowhere. And while we've had some concerns about the actual implementation (in particular the focus on requiring the entrepreneurs to raise a fair amount of venture capital), the general concept is a good one.Late on Friday, it appears that the White House effectively worked out a way to create a startup entrepreneur's visa on its own, without going through Congress. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a plan to expand the "parole" powers it already has to international entrepreneurs, allowing them to stay in the country while building a company:
The proposed rule would allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use its existing discretionary statutory parole authority for entrepreneurs of startup entities whose stay in the United States would provide a significant public benefit through the substantial and demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation.Homeland Security would review each request on a case-by-case basis, but would require the following rules:
- Who have a significant ownership interest in the startup (at least 15 percent) and have an active and central role to its operations;
- Whose startup was formed in the United States within the past three years; and
- Whose startup has substantial and demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation, as evidenced by:
- Receiving significant investment of capital (at least $345,000) from certain qualified U.S. investors with established records of successful investments;
- Receiving significant awards or grants (at least $100,000) from certain federal, state or local government entities; or
- Partially satisfying one or both of the above criteria in addition to other reliable and compelling evidence of the startup entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation.
It does still feel a bit arbitrary, but overall this is definitely a good step for entrepreneurship in the US.
Filed Under: dhs, entrepreneur's visa, entrepreneurship, immigration, parole, startup visa
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This smacks of cronyism. "Yeah, you can stay, but only if you're sponsored by someone on this short list of people who all happen to be donors to my campaign. I'm sure you'll be able to work out a deal favorable to one of them."
So they can stick around for 3 years building their business, and then we'll deport them? Is that really the plan?
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Re:
Possibly, though I doubt it. If that's how it came down, there would be a massive uproar.
So they can stick around for 3 years building their business, and then we'll deport them? Is that really the plan?
The plan allows for much longer than that.
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Re: Re:
Only in Eritrea and the US...bastions of democratic virtuousness.
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Congress in action
The quote came from here, a FaultLines article by Noel Erinjeri
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Re: Congress in action
Obama had ample opportunity to address this issue for the first two years of his presidency, as did the Democratically controlled Congress. They choose to keep the system as it is. Why should anyone expect the GOP to change it now to suit the Democrats, especially since the Democrats squandered an opportunity to do so themselves?
Or maybe both sides just want an issue to blame the other about? Because both are just as guilty of inaction.
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Re: Re: Congress in action
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Plus anything that has homeland security attached to it is suspect from the get go.
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It says DHS on it...it's like HFCS in it.
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Interesting, but still a bad idea
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Re: Interesting, but still a bad idea
I don't see it getting any better for the forseeable future either.
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Now immigration has rules?? Who knew?! Is it not already law that immigrants demonstrate they have means of support, yet we have majorities of immigrants from certain countries on benefits. The pro-increasing immigration side just wants to argue about what the exact percentage of immigrants on welfare is. The law says zero.
Shame a few thousand (handful?) of "immigrant entrepreneurs" (doesn't that actually describe attorneys that make a living shepherding all takers into the country?) have to obey some regs, but the more basic considerations, that are already established in law yet flaunted, are many times more influential on immigration policy, while at the same time being completely ignored.
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Outrage
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