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The StartUp Visa Act aims to attract tech entrepreneurs and targets startup efforts across all sectors
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With more foreign-born students now returning to booming economies in countries such as China and India, technical communities hope a proposed bill will stop the brain drain.
The bill, soon to be reintroduced in Congress, pitches a let’s-make-a-deal plan for immigrant entrepreneurs: Want a green card? Start a company.
The StartUp Visa Act targets startup efforts across all sectors, but enthusiasm for the bill is especially high in tech communities where foreign-born students want to stay and develop a company.
The new EB-6 visas — permanent resident cards, also known as green cards — wouldn’t be available to any immigrant with a good idea.
To qualify, an entrepreneur would need to raise at least $250,000 from investors, and over two years create at least five full-time jobs in the U.S., attract $1 million in additional investment or surpass revenue of $1 million.
The effort aligns with the Obama administration’s new assault on unemployment.
Visa programs now offer incentives only to foreign investors; this would be the first time an early stage entrepreneur could build a business plan toward citizenship.
The StartUp Visa Act was introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) in February 2010. Interest was revived after President Obama’s State of the Union address. The senators plan to reintroduce the bill in the next month or so, said Mark Helmke, a spokesman for Lugar.
Duke University research found that immigrants started 25 percent of U.S. companies launched from 1995 to 2005.
The $250,000 required for the new visa must come from investors who provide seed funding for early stage startups, usually in exchange for an ownership stake. |
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