The North America market is a big market. It also has as equally as big purchasing power. That said, it is any entrepreneur’s dream to break into that market and tap into some of that huge amount of cash exchanging hands in the United States.
However, travelling and living in the U.S. is not something that easily comes by, and understandably so given the country has been the bull’s eye for terror attacks among other things. Nonetheless, there has been a new development in the Obama administration that will grant startup visas to budding entrepreneurs who come up with products that could be beneficial to the American public. Such products must meet the threshold requirements by the White House wing dealing with Tech and Innovation.
According to a publication by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dubbed the White House’ International Entrepreneur Rule, such entrepreneurs will be eligible for a temporary visa if their company meets the following requirements:
Qualified U.S. investors must finance the company.
The founder (who is a non-American) must own at least 15% equity in the company
The company must demonstrate capacity for growth in the U.S. market
The company’s product must be of significant public benefit to the Americans
The White House Deputy Director of Tech and Innovation Tom Kalil, and his counterpart Doug Rands, the Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the Office of Science and Tech Policy said in a statement:
“Creating a startup visas for international entrepreneurs has always been a part of the President’s commonsense immigration reform principles, and was part of the bipartisan immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013. And while there is no substitute for legislation, the Administration is taking the steps it can within existing legal authorities to fix as much of our broken immigration system as possible. The administrative reforms announced by the President in November 2014, if fully implemented, could boost the nation’s economic output by up to $250 billion, while shrinking the federal deficit by $65 billion over the next ten years.”
The President and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association Bobby Franklin added: “today’s announcement is welcome news for the entrepreneurial ecosystem and we applaud the Obama Administration for keeping its foot on the gas of this important issue. Immigration reform has long been a focus of NVCA and we are glad to see our priorities on the issue woven into this proposal. Absent congressional action to finally pass comprehensive immigration reform, NVCA and the venture community will continue to support all measures that make it easier for foreign-born entrepreneurs to come to the U.S. to start and grow successful businesses. We look forward to digging in and reviewing all the details of the proposed rule and working with the administration in the coming weeks to iron out the finished product so that the rule best meets the stated goal of attracting the best and brightest entrepreneurs from around the world.”