New visa to make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to launch start-ups in U.S.
A proposal will be debated in Congress to create a new class of visa eligibility; the start-up visa would be granted to foreign entrepreneurs if their business plan attracts either $250,000 from a venture capital operating company that is primarily U.S. 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 $1 million in revenue
Here is a piece of good news for the new year: A proposal that will make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs in the United States to start the next Google or Yahoo will be debated sometime this year. Congressman Jared Polis has proposed a start-up visa to entice “foreigners with good ideas” to stay in the United States.
The BBC’s Maggie Shiels reports that the issue has been gathering steam in Silicon Valley where half of all tech company founders are immigrants, according to Duke University research. The idea is part of a proposed overhaul of the U.S. 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 U.S.,” he said.
Eric Diep, who has just turned 22, could be regarded as one entrepreneur who got away. He came to Silicon Valley as a student like many immigrant founders who have helped start companies such as Google and PayPal. Diep was one of the first developers to get into social games with his application called Quizzes, initially launched on the social networking site Facebook.
Over a year ago he started to apply for a visa to allow him to carry on working in the Valley, but he soon encountered problems. “The reason it was so difficult for me was because I dropped out of university and the stipulation for a lot of visas is undergraduate experience. My age also seemed to be an issue for the attorneys. “At the beginning it wasn’t the expense in terms of legal fees but the big problem soon became one of distraction. I was trying to spend as much time working on perfecting my product but then I would have to go away and figure out the legalities of applying for the visa,” Diep told BBC News.
In the end, Diep decided to base himself in his native Canada and travel back and forth to Silicon Valley. “The flying is so tiring between the two places and it’s expensive. At one point, I had no money left in my bank account but at the last minute money came in and now I feel pretty fortunate that I can still do this. It was a pretty close call,” he added.
He backs a start-up visa because, for him, being in Silicon Valley is where he needs to
