I’ve had first hand experience of the difficulties in gaining a work visa in the US. It isn’t as simple as filling out a form, getting it stamped and looking for a job. No, it’s actually quite backwards. First you need to find a job, then you apply for a visa. For those unlucky people residing in countries which aren’t listed on the visa waver program, finding a job must be done remote. That was one thing I had in my favor. Being an Australian citizen, I could travel to the US for up to 90 days to secure a job before returning home to apply for a visa.
But what about entrepreneurs wanting to relocate to the US to start a new business? Yes there is the EB-5 visa, which enables investors from other countries to get a visa in exchange for starting a business in the US with $1M in capital (or $500K for economically targeted areas) & the creation of at least 10 US jobs. That doesn’t sound like a Startup to me, more like an expansion of an existing business. My concern is for those entrepreneurs who have an idea, a business plan, a proof of concept and are looking for funding…..someone like me. The US is a huge incubator for seed capital. We’ve all heard of Silicon Valley and the success stories that rose out of Silicon Valley after receiving funding from VC’s or Angel Investors. Should seed capital within the US be limited to US companies? Doesn’t that limit progress?
I’ve been following, and have contributed my story to a cause that is growing significant momentum – StartupVisa.com
StartupVisa.com was created by Eric Ries, Dave McClure, Shervin Pishevar, Brad Feld, Paul Kedrosky, Manu Kumar, & Fred Wilson to raise awareness and change policy re: the EB-5 visa.
Under the proposed legislation, instead of the visa going to an investor, a startup company founder or entrepreneur who receives a minimum equity investment of $250,000 could qualify as an EB-5 visa recipient. At least $100,000 would have to come from a sponsoring US investing entity.
Today StartupVisa.com announced Senators John Kerry (D-MA) & Richard Lugar (R-IN) today introduced The Startup Visa Act in Washington.
The full text of the proposed legislation is here.
This new legislation is also supported by signatures from over 100 US venture capital and angel investors.
Here’s a 2 minute video illustrating the need to open the US up to external entrepreneurs.
To get behind the cause you can write a letter to Congress in support of Startup Visa in about 30 seconds without ever leaving this site. StartupVisa.com will collect and deliver the messages to the White House and Congress on thier trip to Washington DC March 3-6. Click on the following link:
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Personally I do think this start-up visa may work for some people but it may NOT work for majority international business owner. First, it is very difficult to persuade the U.S investors to invest $100,000 to your company for start-up in U.S. Suppose the U.S. investors have $100,000, why those investors keep this money for their own business ? Second, any business take risk and if the international business owner lose money in their own business, so how can they repay the money to investors? Also, these international business owners may create another type of illegal immigrants. Since these international business owners may NOT know US very well, so why don't allow international students who have US advanced degrees and have stayed in US for over 10 years to get green card to stay in US to start their own business with their own choice to hire 1-3 people to ease the unemployment in US. I think this may be more realistic than issue the start-up visa to international business owners. US has so many international students if they hire 1-3 people by creating jobs, the results are similar to issue the start-up visa to international business owners.