Around half of the tech businesses started in Silicon Valley are started by non-Americans. Tech entrepreneur and now Congressman, Jared Polis, has proposed a new visa category to or a new “start-up visa” to help foreign born tech entrepreneurs stay in the USA.
The idea is part of a proposed overhaul of the US immigration system.
“Every day the American economy is losing ground – not to mention high-tech jobs and technologies – to India and China because foreign-born entrepreneurs cannot secure a visa to stay in the US,” [Polis] said.
This will help entrepreneurs who can secure funding stay and grow their business. The article shares Eric Diep’s story. Diep, who is Canadian, started an Internet applications company but had to leave the USA because he couldn’t qualify for an EB-5 visa.
Each year the USA issues 10,000 of these. In order to get one applicants need to invest $1m and create 10 full-time jobs. Diep eventually got funding, but now he spends his time commuting back and from from Canada to Silicon Valley. This new class of visa could avoid this sort of problem.
This is how it will work:
It would be granted to foreign entrepreneurs if their business plan attracts either $250,000 from a venture capital operating company that is primarily US based or $100,000 from an angel investor.
They must also show that the business will create five to ten jobs or generate a profit and at least $1m in revenue.
Is there anyone out there who has been impacted by not being able to get an EB-5 visa? How does this proposed visa category match up to similar ones that already exist in Canada, the UK and Australia?
More links:
- Source: BBC News – New visa proposal to help create the next big thing
- Congressman Polis’ webpage: Polis Introduces Legislation to Reform EB-5 Visa Program and Create “Start-Up Visa”
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| Polis Introduces Legislation to Reform EB-5 Visa Program and Create “Start-Up Visa” |
What a joke! There are plenty of talented developers in country. Companies just want cheap foreign labor who will work for peanuts. With so many citizens in this country out of work it is a slap in the face for congress to even consider legislation such as this.
This isn’t a law that takes away jobs. At least, not per my understanding. If there are talented developers here, they’re working. This is for foreigners who have a great idea, want to stay AND have the investors to back their businesses. Since the law requires that they prove both that they have the funds and that they’ll hire people, I don’t see how this is taking anyone’s job.
However, I do understand that there are different perspectives on this issue, but this isn’t a measure that takes jobs away. If the venture capital potential isn’t there, they won’t get funded and won’t get visas. That’s why it’s a proposed law. The details will get sorted out in Congress and let’s hope it will be an effective visa measure that attracts foreign talent that can build profitable businesses because that leads to more jobs. If they’re doing it out of the USA there are no jobs developed for us but for wherever they happen to be. As someone who lived abroad for 8 years, I noticed how proactive other developed nations were with attracting skilled talent. I think the USA has to catch up in that respect.
Who does this legislation really benefit? How many of these bona-fide entrepreneurs are there? How many jobs can they possibly create? My guess is that we’re talking about a handful of people who really should get this opportunity versus the hordes who will exploit it.
There are plenty of talented people in America. We don’t need to import creative, hard-working people. If an idea is so amazing that the entrepreneur can get funding, why can’t he or she use the money to build infrastructure and business networks in their own countries? The U.S. will be better off if these entrepreneurs develop local businesses so we can sell our goods and services to them.
not a zero sum game, in fact quite the opposite –this reform makes it more likely for non-US entrepreneurs to use the EB-5 visa to bring their business & investors to the US, and thereby create jobs here for everyone, including US citizens.
@US developer: so which is it? either it’s a small # of people impacted, so it’s no skin off your back… or it’s a large # of people helped, in which case it’s great for job creation. sounds like you’re arguing out of both side of your mouth.
again, this reform doesn’t take jobs away from US developers, it helps create MORE of them. and it’s also not taking money away from US entrepreneurs — it’s bringing additional capital to the US if talented entrepreneurs decide to come here instead of starting up elsewhere.
To both US Developers, or any US Citizen that has a negative comment, think before you answer. This is great for all! foreign entrepreneurs, US citizens & the USA.
Please keep in mind that Talented is not the same as Entrepreneurial.
One of the reasons entrepreneurs want to come here is because there are more talented hard-working people in the US!
Do you eat? Use means of transportation? Study? Have a place to live?
Guess what! the person that gets the visa also needs to eat, get a car, rent a home, rent an office!!! This means spending money in the US, creating more jobs for US Citizens and revenue for US businesses.
So however small or big of a business will be created by the foreign entrepreneur it will give jobs to US citizens, Increase GDP, Increase US Tax Income (which pay for US infrastructure, defense, education, energy, etc. etc.).
Imagine if one of those foreign entrepreneurs, whether here on visa or immigrants that are now US citizens or born from US immigrants, actually creates or is the co-founder of a massive US based global corporation that creates 50k+ jobs globally and billions of revenue!
You don’t really have to imagine it, just think of some of the biggest US companies you know, P&G, Google, Yahoo, Sun, IBM, Pfizer, etc…
And if you try be smart and say Google only has 20k employees, read again and think!! it still creates 50k+ jobs, how many people are into SEO in the States alone??
What is the Australian equivalent of this proposed visa?
Foreign Entrepreneur…I love you. Great explanation.
I also agree with Dave McClure because this is by no means a zero-sum game where someone’s gain is another person’s loss. My fellow Americans, I believe, really need to realize that when it comes to work and commerce it’s not all about someone’s gain being another person’s loss.
Vorf…that was my question too. The BBC article, the source for this post, said that there is a similar program in Australia. I’m trained in the US legal system. Maybe the best person to ask Maggie Shiels, the reporter who wrote the piece. In fact, now that I think about it, I’ll write her and see what I can find.
Update:
Maggie got that info from a source but a targeted Google search got me to the right page: Business Development Sponsorship. I didn’t dig very deep, but that seems to be the one for people wanting to establish a business in Australia.
Regina ,Great article. I just read one by Brad Feld also. Kudos to you guys. Looks like I just missed the bus. No wonder the USA is indeed the land where dreams come true. I just had to leave America after a long and arduous struggle trying to get a visa to launch my digital media startup. I moved to Singapore where a foreign entrepreneur can get the EntrepreneurPass and the minimum investment is only S$50k (~US$36k) . If this movement in the US goes through, I would surely regret leaving the US. God bless you and your country.
Who does this benefit? How about every single person involved in very single step of the process? Not only do these immigrants gain citizenship, they also create jobs for Americans, enliven communities, keep lawyers working, and stimulate the economy. The eb5 green card is definitely a good thing and it seems a bit knee jerk to just rally against it without any real information..
This is ridiculous, to say the least . If this legislation goes through, it will be a huge hit for many up and developing countries. The US is the largest market for almost any product or service. Imagine if they open the doors freely for all wannabe entrepreneurs with cash from around the world. This has the potential to unleash a great brain drain again. Just when developing countries are slowly getting their game on track, here comes another bolt. All trade ministers around the world should sit up and make every effort to block this . Entrepreneurs are the critical engine of growth for any nation and this is quite simply blatant robbery of intellectual property, which the US has done for several years.
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They tried this visa in the UK, but it was denied after it was discovered the visa would mainly be used to outsource. According to Gordon Brown “visa for entrepreneurs would only be granted only if we don’t have the skills locally”. Australia has limited it's use of tech visas a great deal in the past few years and concentrated on getting highly skilled local talent back to work.
Anyways, a lot of this talk about the start-up visa Sounds like the pro-h1b arguments of the past. It was first described as a visa only for the best and brightest. A visa only to be used when no US citizen was qualified to do the work. It turned out to be used for very basic programming and IT activities which millions of Americans can do. The visa was used to lower wages and off-shore jobs. The h1b turned out to be a disaster; rampant with fraud and increased unemployment. A lot of people are very skeptical of this new visa.