USCIS Talks Immigration Law at Silicon Valley's Entrepreneurs in Residence Program
This week I attended the USCIS Entrepreneurs in Residence program, held at NASA Research Park in Mountain View, CA. This program grew out of an acknowledgment that the existing U.S. immigration laws for business visas are based on traditional business entities, and don't recognize the dynamic and untraditional business environments of startup enterprises. We still don't have a Startup Visa, and Congress will not be creating one anytime soon. Accordingly, the Entrepreneurs in Residence program is part of an overall USCIS initiative, announced last summer, to promote startup enterprises within the framework of existing immigration law.
The "Entrepreneurs in Residence" part of the program invites in five successful entrepreneurs to educate USCIS adjudicators about the nature of startup business, the language of startups, and just what are the indicia of a legitimate business in startup mode. They will consider how the regular business visas - B: Temporary Visitor for Business; H-1B: Specialty Occupations; E-1: Treaty Trader; E-2: Treaty Investors; L-1: Intracompany Transferees; and O-1, Extraordinary Ability - can be used for entrepreneurs within the framework of existing immigration laws.
Several top-level USCIS leaders attended, and the program was kicked off by USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. The morning's speakers included a small panel of successful CEO's and venture capitalists who provided their own inspiring immigration stories, as well as words of caution that America is experiencing a reverse "brain drain". These panelists, Ms. Ping Fu, Mr. Michael Moritz, Mr. Shervin Pishevar, and Mr. Vivek Wadhwa, as well as Mr. Christopher Che, were then awarded "Outstanding American By Choice" during a naturalization oath ceremony.
