Vivek Wadhwa has a cool new proposal for a visa targeted toward entrepreneurs with great ideas and start up capital to launch new enterprises. Here’s some of what he writes in Businessweek:
Here’s how it would work. Suppose a talented engineer who is not a U.S. citizen has a great idea for a new type of search engine and wants to start a company. This entrepreneur wants to start that company in the U.S., where venture capital markets are the most mature, intellectual property laws are strong, and the talent level is high. It turns out that the would-be founder’s search engine idea is actually very good. So a qualified U.S. investor decides to put real money—say, $250,000 to $500,000—into the startup. That investor could nominate the potential founder for a Founders Visa while also making a formal commitment to fund his or her company.
The idea and the founder’s résumé would then need to pass muster with a government or industry-appointed board of venture capitalists, financiers, or technology experts. After passing, the founder would be granted a permanent resident visa.
To open up visa slots, Ries, Feld and others propose altering an existing visa known as the EB-5, now for immigrant investors. Created by the Immigration Act of 1990, the EB-5 lets foreign nationals who invest at least $1 million in the U.S., and thereby create 10 jobs, obtain a green card. In areas where unemployment is high, foreign nationals need only invest $500,000 to obtain residency. By adding a Founders Visa provision such as that I have outlined to the EB-5 visa, we could avoid having to create a new class of visas and any political hassles this might entail.
Democratic Congressman Jared Polis and arch-conservative Republican Newt Gingrich are two politicians championing the idea. Hopefully, some of the folks drafting the immigration reform bill in Congress will take note.