Updating 30-year old immigration policy is necessary for entrepreneurial growth. International entrepreneurs still believe that the U.S. is the ideal place for scaling, developing, and growing their ideas, despite the impact of a global pandemic on both immigration and the economy. The current administration’s efforts to reform and repair immigration policies implemented over the past several years has cleared pathways for these entrepreneurs to make their mark.
Since 2020, the pandemic and political polarizations have created a ripple effect across industries, with whole fields experiencing job shortages, international (and even American) professionals considering new, friendlier destinations to take their work, and companies stuck in limbo while weighing the costs and benefits of hiring international workers.
The U.S. currently offers immigration options that entrepreneurs use to come stateside, notably the treaty investor visa, or the E-2, and the extraordinary abilities visa, also known as the O-1, amongst a few others.
This first allows foreign entrepreneurs from certain countries to live and work in the U.S. for a two-year period, allowing these innovators to develop their ideas. There is a catch: you must invest a minimum of $150,000 in a U.S. business or in one that you have founded in the U.S., and you must be from a country that currently maintains a trade treaty with the U.S.
While many investors are accustomed to the risk of capital loss through their investments, and showing that the investment has a good chance of generating sufficient income, E-2 applicants are also required to have a dedicated premise for the business – it can’t be run out of a residence. Securing a premise before having a visa in hand can seem like a significant hurdle, and this can be seen as one of the broader flaws in the immigration system begging for reform.
An Imperfect Alternative
As a result, many international entrepreneurs pursue the O-1 visa, an option meant for professionals with extraordinary abilities within the arts, entertainment, sciences, education, business, and athletics. The O-1 visa allows you to come to the U.S. for periods of up to three years while you continue to work and live in the country.
Because entrepreneurial visa requirements are often hard to satisfy for young innovators, professionals are sometimes forced to pursue other alternatives, many of which take years to qualify for.
Those years may be the difference between founding a future billion-dollar company that creates thousands of American jobs, and an international rival taking the idea and developing it elsewhere in the world.
Despite this, small business ownership is trending towards a twenty-year high. A majority of new jobs are created through entrepreneurs and their work. These innovators and their small businesses disrupt the international market, which in turn, fuels job creation and supports competition across industries. It only takes a great idea to transform that small business into a monolith!
The Obama administration attempted to address this oversight, with the International Entrepreneur Rule which sought to allow foreign entrepreneurs to live and develop their work in the U.S. on a temporary basis. Despite efforts to rescind the rule under the Trump administration, President Biden has revived the program – breathing life into an opportunity for entrepreneurs to capitalize on the program.
The Department of Homeland Security estimated that nearly 3,000 entrepreneurs will be eligible for the International Entrepreneur Rule each year – a potential influx of immigrant owned small businesses could provide an avenue to create thousands of immigrant friendly jobs across the United States.
Inspiration Abroad
The United States has a long way to grow to keep up with other countries’ efforts to attract innovators looking to build their business internationally:
The French Tech Visa has interested countless entrepreneurs by promising a “simplified fast track” process for three categories of tech talent: startup founders, employees, and investors.
Finland’s startup permit has enticed a myriad of international innovators to the country by promising a faster turnaround for applicants with specialized foreign talent, rather than a long, drawn-out process that could take up to a year or more in the U.S.
These European countries are paying attention to the trends and are facilitating an intellectual gold rush that is creating jobs and improving lives in these countries in a number of ways.
As one of Southern California’s leading business-immigration law groups, my firm has witnessed several international clients take their work to these greener pastures. Here are a couple of recent examples:
An Italian manufacturing giant pulled out of plans to establish business stateside after hitting multiple barriers in the visa process.
A world-famous chef, disillusioned with the time and resources it took to earn his visa, gave up on founding a chain of restaurants in the U.S., and instead took his business to France, where he has grown beyond his own expectations.
Bottom Line
There is not one industry in the U.S. that is safe from this growing trend and not a corner of American life that is not affected by this immense and ongoing loss of opportunity.
If American policymakers do not act soon, the country runs the risk of missing out on the current entrepreneurial wave of innovation driving the global marketplace. We also run the risk of punting the next immigrant-founded tech giants, such as Google, Tesla, Yahoo! and Intel to other countries, along with the countless potential jobs these companies create.
The solution does not require U.S. legislators to overhaul the system in its entirety, rather they need to improve policy that is already set in place.
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater will not make the U.S. immigration system a cleaner process!
There is no reason the O-1 visa cannot encompass entrepreneurship and since the visa was created almost 30 years ago (a lifetime in the tech sector), it’s long overdue for an update to better address current job trends and reward those potential job creators.
A new visa classification specifically geared towards the rising entrepreneurs fueling job creation could make an incredible difference in the development of these technologies and ideas, and in facilitating economic growth while creating a new golden era of tech boom.
The international entrepreneurs we represent think big and aim high. They scale reasonably and approach their dreams with carefully plotted steps. There is nothing more American than a full-throated dedication to make dreams a reality. Their originality and commitment are our gain, in so many ways!
The Immigration Act of 1990 not only established the O-1 visa and numerous other visa options, but was also introduced by Democrat Ted Kennedy, and signed into law by Republican President George H.W. Bush. Policymakers need to find inspiration in this bipartisanship and embrace immigration solutions that set the country up for success in the years and decades to come.
Given the efforts made by President Biden since he took office, rallying around and supporting immigrant job creators could be the olive branch needed to bring U.S. immigration policy to the 21st century.
It’s time to invest in our future by revising and updating the O-1 visa to reflect the tech-driven world we live in today.
Author : Stephanie Rainin
Consult her Services page and her French Cluster Member page