US door closes on foreign entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs who want to launch start-up companies in the US face a more challenging path, as the Trump Administration plans to rescind an Obama-era programme.

Known as the International Entrepreneur Rule and favoured by many in the technology industry, the programme would allow non-US citizens to stay in the US for a renewable 30-month term, if they launched companies that won US$100,000 in government grants or received US$250,000 in venture capital investment.

Finalised in the last days of the Obama administration, it was set to take effect next week.

But the Trump Administration on Monday announced it would delay the scheme until next March, as the Department of Homeland Security launches an additional review of the so-called “start-up visa.” In the interim, the Administration will propose rescinding the programme.

“Big mistake,” said a Twitter response from Steve Case, founder of America Online and now chief executive of the Revolution LLC investment fund.

“Immigrant entrepreneurs are job makers, not job takers.”

The National Venture Capital Association, an industry trade group, also criticised the step. “At a time when countries around the world are doing all they can to attract and retain talented individuals to come to their shores to build and grow innovative companies, the Trump Administration is signalling its intent to do the exact opposite,” said Bobby Franklin, the group’s president and chief executive.

It is the latest example of the Administration taking a step to restrain immigration despite objections from business groups.

The President’s ban on travel from six Muslim majority countries drew criticism from many companies and more than 160 technology firms, including Amazon, Facebook and Google’s parent Alphabet, joined a legal brief criticising the executive order. Technology firms have also criticised the Administration’s efforts to restrict access to H-1B visas for highly-skilled workers.

The move is also likely to draw the ire of some Republicans on Capitol Hill.

A group of Republican senators last month sent Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly a letter calling the start-up rule consistent with the Administration’s “goals of stimulating the economy and creating job growth at home”.

“There is little benefit to losing any more ground in attracting entrepreneurs and their investments,” said the senators, including Arizona’s John McCain and Jeff Flake, Utah’s Orrin Hatch, and Jerry Moran of Kansas. —