The Startup Visa Act and Entrepreneur-Focused American Immigration

The Startup Visa Act dates back to April 2009, when Paul Graham, a veteran Web programmer and developer, introduced the idea in his blog under the name of the Founders Visa. Soon after, the idea was adopted by Brad Feld, a Web entrepreneur and investor, who has become one of its strongest supporters. Last September, Feld held extensive conversations with congressmen in Colorado, including Jared Polis, who has founded several internet startups. Polis was responsible for presenting the act to the Colorado House of Representatives last November, before its introduction as a bill to the Senate in February by Foreign Relations Committee members John Kerry and Richard Lugar. The bill is now in the process of being revised and finalized; Feld hopes that the Senate will reach a decision about it sometime within the next year.

The act was developed for people like Eric Diep, a Canadian citizen and co-creator of a quiz application on Facebook that became successful in a matter of days. Diep and his idea attracted investors, but it became apparent that the complications associated with foreign business partnership were too daunting for anyone to invest. "The dream was to build a great company," Diep said. "In the end it just broke down because it was impossible to get a visa. I felt like I was really close to [success], yet impossibly far away from it."

Bjoern Weidlich is a German student at Clark University who came to the United States for an exchange year in eleventh grade and "fell in love with life in the U.S." He joined the entrepreneurship club as a freshman and has been its president for three years. Weidlich is excited that the issue of immigration and entrepreneurship has been receiving increased attention, but he is disappointed about the conditions to obtain the EB-6, especially the eventual need to produce $1 million in revenue. Weidlich thinks "America has to be careful," when putting together this bill, since "there is no reason why Silicon Valley has to be the startup hub forever -- we're seeing other places like Singapore respond and make it easier for immigrants to move there and start companies. If the U.S. doesn't make it easy for talent to stay or come here to start companies the talent will soon go somewhere else."

According to Vivek Wadhwa, a columnist for BusinessWeek.com and a professor in residence and startup advisor at Duke University, "The big problem that the bill solves is that when brilliant foreign students graduate with ideas on how to build some technologies which will change the world, they will have an option of starting their venture in the U.S. rather than being forced to return home. When a tech entrepreneur in Europe or China wants to start their company in America and create the jobs here, they will be able to do so."

Within the tech community, the initiative has received significant support and, not surprisingly, has become especially popular among those with vested interests in Internet startups. Since many successful startups -- including behemoths Google and Yahoo -- were founded or co-founded by immigrants, the community is eager to see how this bill might help expand the market.

Much of the discussion of the act thus far has been contained to the blogosphere, Facebook, and Twitter, but the act as proposed could have an impact far outside the technology field. Feld emphasizes that there are steps being taken to expand "the grassroots efforts beyond just the tech sector. The national media has picked this up and is incorporating it into a lot of discussions about new job creation, which is the core reason for the Startup Visa Act." Initially, Feld estimates that the act would create one thousand to five thousand new jobs annually.

While many have referred to the Startup Visa Act as a win-win proposition, others have strongly opposed it for favoring American investors and opening up potential abuses of immigrants' talent. Others advocate for modifications that could guarantee a better balance between founders and sponsors. There has also been debate over some of the act's uncertainties, specifically whether it will have a direct impact on unemployment numbers. It is currently unclear if only Americans be eligible for the jobs newly created by the EB-6 entrepreneurs, or will the employer be permitted to hire visa holders?

Despite the bill's key potential to create jobs and economic opportunity, these questions will need to be addressed as the bill moves through the Senate over the coming months.