This International Entrepreneur Rule is the so-called "startup visa" that was introduced in 2016. It was practically tailormade for founders of YC companies.<p>Founders would qualify for a period of several years simply based on investment raised and amount of ownership in the company. Traditional visas are more oriented towards big corporations' needs and are not so easy to bend to fit startups (or so I hear -- I'm no sort of lawyer).<p>Sad to see it killed off, even though the writing was on the wall ever since November 2016.
US government 101:
immigration laws are <i>passed</i> by Congress
Immigration laws should be <i>implemented</i> by the executive (the president and federal agencies) using federal <i>policies</i><p>This rule was an attempt to make a new law just by implementing a policy, so the new administration can easily rescind it. Whereas say, Obamacare was a law, so can only be overturned by another successful vote in Congress, which is a lot harder.<p>I support the idea of this policy to encourage skilled immigration, but it should actually be passed by Congress.
I love the startup eco-system of the US, and as someone fluent in English, and entrepreneurial, I would love to emigrate to the US with my startup -- but goddamit is it getting harder every single day.
The main thing that strikes me is that the assumption if we do not allow these so called "entrepreneurs" in then we would have lost out on the "half" of >$1B companies founded by them. Sometimes opportunities are ripe and if one entrepreneur doesnt pick it, another will. That entrepreneur could be current legal resident of the US, rather than a foreign one.<p>I personally prefer more open borders, but the fallacy in the article also bothers me.
the article seems to assume that there is no possible alternative for fostering entrepreneurialism and new company formation in the US, that once this source of entrepreneurs is taken away from the overall pool, there can be no other way to augment it
Absolutely no idea why Stephen Miller and others in the Trump Whitehouse are preoccupied with stifling all forms of immigration into the United States.<p>If your main argument is that immigration is bringing crime (it isn't) and flooding the market with low skill labor (which... is consistent with our history) I don't see how you can go after a niche like this, which is both low volume and high skill and actually creates middle-class jobs for Americans.<p>Is there a sentiment that native-born entrepreneurs are losing out on VC cash due to immigration?
As an Indian person on H1B I welcome this move. This was a loophole for rich and corrupt in India used to buy their way into American citizenship. Around 500K Indians are waiting for decades to get their green card. It would be much better to flush the queue and offer them green-cards so they could start their business in USA.
Rich entrepreneurs hire fancy immigration attorneys and go to the front of the line well before 5 years. Impact to well funded entrepreneurs will be minimal and those it does effect will take up residence in Toronto/Vancoover/MexicoCity.