The Entrepreneur Visa Bill
As the unemployment rate in the United States reaches an all-time high, it may prove to be the key in kick starting the beleaguered immigration reform movement.
The Kauffman Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization, proposed on Tuesday, July 11, 2001 a program dubbed the Startup Act, a comprehensive economic reform proposal which suggests that granting foreign entrepreneurs visas could prove helpful in creating employment opportunities and bolstering economic growth.
An Entrepreneur Visa Bill introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Luger (R-IN) in March 2011 and called the Start Up Visa, or the EB-6, is one approach the Kauffman Foundation proposes. It is an alternative to the EB-5 investor Visa, where an entrepreneur must invest either $500,000 or $1 million in a U.S. business, depending on the location of the business, and it must create at least 10 jobs. Of the 9,940 EB-5 Visas available, less than half are granted to applicants per year. While opponents to immigration reform maintain that Jobs for foreigners means less Jobs for potential Americans, the Kauffman Foundation finds that a nominal portion of the start-ups in the United States have been established by foreigners, which have directly led to job creation and strengthened the U.S. economy as more Americans join the work force and new businesses join the of American stream of commerce. Senator Kerry contends that if these entrepreneurs cannot stay, it will prove a loss for the United States in competitive, job creating businesses. The Start up Acts differs from the Start Up Visa bill proposed in the House and Senate in that it does not post a cap on how many applicants may be granted Visas.
The Kauffman Foundation’s proposal goes on further to explain that there are over 1 million skilled workers already here in the U.S. on temporary H1-B visas and over 60,000 foreigner students who graduate from American Universities with graduate or undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM degrees). The proposal suggests extending their Visas to allow them to acquire jobs in the US. While the proposal acknowledges that allowing foreign students to work in the US upon graduation may deprive their American peers of the same job, the proposal goes on to explain that not only are STEM degrees a specialization which is highly needed in the US, but that the long term benefits outweigh any immediate concern, as such individuals will go on to find their own businesses, which will employ Americans.
The Startup Act maintains that such immigration reform may be the expeditious route in revving up the economic motor. This start up agenda has started out by concentrating on importing more job creators
and innovators because this reform well may be the most cost-effective policy measure the federal
government can take immediately to stimulate more scale start ups.
Sources:
http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/kauffman-foundation-unveils-startup-act-proposal-to-boost-growth-of-new-businesses-and-add-jobs-to-u-s-economy.aspx
http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/startup_act.pdf
http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/19/smallbusiness/visas_for_entrepreneurs/
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