This morning the White House announced the “startup visa,” which is formally called the International Entrepreneur Rule. You can find the 155-page text of the proposed rule here. The White House explains the proposed rule on Medium and it posted a blog by Max Levchin, co-founder of Paypal and other successful startups. We wrote about the summary of the program and you can find out resource page with blogs and video content here.
Here is the USCIS description of the proposed International Entrepreneur Rule, white states the parole status will be available for startup entrepreneurs:
- Who have a significant ownership interest in the startup (at least 15 percent) and have an active and central role to its operations;
- Whose startup was formed in the United States within the past three years; and
- Whose startup has substantial and demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation, as evidenced by:
- Receiving significant investment of capital (at least $345,000) from certain qualified U.S. investors with established records of successful investments;
- Receiving significant awards or grants (at least $100,000) from certain federal, state or local government entities; or
- Partially satisfying one or both of the above criteria in addition to other reliable and compelling evidence of the startup entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation.
This status will allow founders to stay up to two years initially in the US. An additional request for 3 years would be considered if the startup is successful in continuing to provide a “significant public benefit as evidenced by substantial increases in capital investment, revenue or job creation.”
The next step for the International Entrepreneur Rule is that the public can comment on the proposed rule for 45 days. Stay tuned as Alcorn Immigration will continue to blog about:
- Why is it difficult for startup founders to get visas and green cards?
- What is parole and when can it lead to a green card?
- How to Get Parole
- What’s the President’s Legal Authority for the International Entrepreneur Rule?
- How to comment on the proposed International Entrepreneur Rule
