Immigration
Administration Announces Initiatives to Promote Foreign Entrepreneurial Talent – PART II
Immigrant Investor (EB-5) Program
As previously reported, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to enhance and streamline the Immigrant Investor (EB-5) Program. Some components of the streamlined program include a fast-track for applications of enterprises that are fully developed and ready to be implemented, premium processing for certain cases, and the implementation of direct communication between the applicant and USCIS to, among other things, resolve issues without the need for formal requests for additional evidence (RFEs).
Expansion of premium processing for immigrant multinational executives and managers
USCIS also announced that it will expand premium processing service to multinational executives and managers immigrant visa petitions (EB-1-3). Premium processing, which guarantees adjudication in 15 days, is currently available for many other employment-based immigrant visa petitioners, including extraordinary ability foreign nationals and outstanding professors and researchers. However, EB-2 National Interest Waiver petitions remain conspicuously still absent from the premium processing list, an anomaly that is hard to explain. Surely, the certainty of a decision in 15 calendar days through premium processing would encourage a reluctant entrepreneur-petitioner to go forward and invest. We hope USCIS will rethink this and add EB-2 NIW petitions to the list.
Nonimmigrant visas
On the nonimmigrant side of the ledger, USCIS unfortunately provides little new guidance. It does, however, state that an H-1B beneficiary who is the sole owner (an employee-entrepreneur) of the petitioning company may establish a valid employer-employee relationship for the purposes of qualifying for an H-1B visa. This has long been a gray area and fraught with tremendous uncertainty in adjudication.
USCIS also announced plans to undertake extensive outreach efforts, including a series of engagement opportunities with stakeholders to seek input and feedback on how to address the unique circumstances of entrepreneurs, new businesses, and startup companies. Certainly, other nonimmigrant work visas that are suitable for those in business – Es, Ls, and Os – will be the subject of such efforts and must be addressed. And, given the fanfare associated with the recent announcement, USCIS must be prepared to lay out its implementation plan in real and concrete terms.
Will new policy translate into nonimmigrant and immigrant visa approvals?
Long advocated for by immigrant practitioners, economists, business, and others, the ideas outlined by Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano and USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas are welcome news, even if symbolic. The United States needs capital and talent to jump-start the economy, and foreign investors and entrepreneurs -- natural risk takers – have long sought status in the United States to conduct business here. Moreover, these initiatives require no new visa category to be enacted and no expansion of visa numbers. What these initiatives do require, however, is flexibility and a common sense application of the law by USCIS and State Department adjudicators. Such decision-makers must be instructed and trained to adapt the specific particularities of everyday business practice to immigration visa criteria, and abandon their more widespread rigid, checklist approach to adjudication.
So, will foreign companies that operate and expand operations in the U.S. see fewer hurdles when seeking to transfer their executive and managerial employees? Will self-starters with big ideas, some capital, and job creation prospects secure green cards? Will EB-5 immigrant investors have greater assurance that the conditions on their residence will be removed? Will foreign E-1 traders and E-2 investors – while not specifically addressed – have more confidence in their renewal applications? Most importantly, will these initiatives trickle down to the field? Or, is the Emperor wearing no clothes. Stay tuned….
Dilip Patel of Dilip Patel Law Firm (Business and Immigration Attorneys) is board certified in immigration and nationality law. He can be reached at (813) 855-0066, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.dplawfirm.com