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The Trump administration is delaying the effective date of an Obama-era rule that would allow foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the U.S. while it solicits public comments on a proposal to rescind the rule altogether.
The international entrepreneur rule was published on Jan. 17 -- three days before Trump was inaugurated -- and was scheduled to go into effect next Monday. The rule outlines criteria by which the secretary of homeland security can use discretionary, case-by-case authority to grant what’s known in immigration parlance as “parole” to allow international entrepreneurs who have “demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation that they would provide a significant public benefit to the United States” to stay in the U.S. for a renewable 30-month term.
In a notice to be published today in the Federal Register, however, the Homeland Security Department said that it has decided to delay the effective date of the rule until next March while it reviews it in light of an executive order on border security and immigration enforcement signed by Trump Jan. 25. That order directs the secretary of homeland security to “take appropriate action to ensure that parole authority” under the Immigration and Nationality Act “is exercised only on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the plain language of the statute, and in all circumstances only when an individual demonstrates urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit derived from such parole.”
The notice described it as "highly likely" that the international entrepreneur rule will ultimately be rescinded.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the foreign entrepreneur rule enjoys strong backing in Silicon Valley as the closest thing to a long sought-after (and elusive) “start-up visa” for foreign entrepreneurs. There is currently no straightforward path for international entrepreneurs to stay in the U.S. while developing a company.
The National Venture Capital Association issued a statement in which President and CEO Bobby Franklin described the announcement about the rule as “extremely disappointing” and as representing “a fundamental misunderstanding of the critical role immigrant entrepreneurs play in growing the next generation of American companies. 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 signaling its intent to do the exact opposite,” Franklin said.
