Visa Backlog Risks Foreign Students' Business Dreams

aquamarinesea
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:04:31 +0000

BC –



There is a path to residency - I don’t know what the amount is but if you come into the US with a certain amount of money and state that you’re going to start a business and hire workers, then I think that you can get residency. A lot of countries permit this though the amounts vary. Could they raise that money from VC’s?



Not sure if you got a chance to read the entire article (it’s quite long). But this is all explained in the article. These two engineers are currently about to close on millions of dollars in financing. Unlike Canada and other countries, the US offers no specific visa for young entrepreneurs like them who want to start a business in our country. Countries such as Canada, Singapore, Australia and Germany are trying to attract foreign entrepreneurs with relatively easy visas. So why are we making it so difficult here in the US?

“The law says that people on student visas must intend to leave the country after their studies end. But because he has started a company in the US, lawyers tell him he could easily be denied a new student visa.” The most common visa for high-skilled immigrant workers is the H1-B, but the government often denies those visas for people working for businesses they started themselves. He could apply for an EB-1 visa for those with exceptional ability, but only about 2% of visas awarded each year are in this category.