As a US immigrant and entrepreneur who came to this country in search of opportunity I have always paid close attention to US immigration policy. As you might imagine I also have a particularly strong and loving relationship with my immigration attorney, Philip Curtis. Phil is managing partner of Boston-based Chin & Curtis and, after my wife and anchor baby daughter, is the person most responsible for keeping me in these United States of America.
I asked Phil to help me (and you) make sense of what the President's recent Executive Action might mean for highly skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants.
PHIL:
Last week, President Obama announced a comprehensive plan to bypass Congress and improve a “broken” immigration system through Executive Action. Most of the attention has understandably focused on provisions to help upwards of five million undocumented immigrants, but some of the President’s boldest proposals are to enhance opportunities for entrepreneurs wishing to conduct research and development and create jobs in the U.S.
The President has directed USCIS to take action in two areas: first, to clarify the standards for granting permanent residence to people whose work is in the national interest, with the aim of promoting greater use of this green card avenue “for the benefit of the U.S. economy”; and second, by creating a program for the temporary admission of inventors, researchers, and founders of start-up enterprises who might not yet qualify for “national interest” green cards but who “have been awarded substantial U.S. investor financing or otherwise hold the promise of innovation and job creation through the development of new technologies or the pursuit of cutting-edge research.”
This is potentially great news for entrepreneurs – the Council of Economic Advisors estimates that these initiatives could result in 100,000 new entrepreneurial visas over ten years – as well as a long-awaited statement of sensible national immigration policy. But will it come to pass? As of yet, there is no detail. Regulations must be drafted and authoritative memos written. Will politics and agency paralysis intervene to continue the unsatisfactory status quo?
I believe that entrepreneurs will benefit from the President’s Executive Action. Unlike proposals to improve the lives of millions of undocumented immigrants, there is and always has been bipartisan support for reforms that promote job creation, entrepreneurship, business development and innovation. Legislative reform of business immigration has failed recently because it has been combined with much broader and politically more difficult proposals for comprehensive immigration reform, but the President’s Executive Action effectively unbundles them. Congress is unlikely to legislate against regulations designed to enhance entrepreneurship and create American jobs.
Whether USCIS can draft workable regulations and then implement them in a useful manner is another question, and skepticism is appropriate. Most immigration lawyers would say that for several years, agency adjudications have displayed a decidedly harsh attitude toward small businesses and entrepreneurs. However, there is reason for optimism on this front as well. The President has made immigration reform a major piece of his domestic political legacy, and half-measures will not serve him well. USCIS has been instructed to develop new policies and regulations that will be good for both U.S. businesses and workers, will support our country’s high-skilled businesses and workers, and will be published in a timely manner. In addition, the entrepreneur piece of the President’s Executive Action is a creative and even legally aggressive approach that bespeaks a strong commitment to action. The temporary admission proposed for foreign entrepreneurs utilizes existing statutory authority to “parole” people into the United States when there is a significant public benefit for doing so. This provision has historically been used for humanitarian purposes, and creating a special parole for entrepreneurs is both a break from the past and a vision for the future. We eagerly await the regulations.
