The doors of the US are now wide open, all over again, to the overseas entrepreneurs under the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), which in popularly known as the ‘startup visa’ path.
Yes, in what is being called, a very positive development (rightfully so) from the Indian perspectives, a US district court judge has reportedly recently ruled that the Trump government has no rights whatsoever to postpone an Obama-era immigration law! The law in question allows the qualified overseas entrepreneurs to stay in the US, briefly, to cultivate and develop their startups.
Duly finalized by the previous Obama government, the International Entrepreneur Rule allowed the qualified (based on approved requirements) entrepreneurs to get immigration ‘parole’—that is to provisionally get admission and reside in the country, regardless of not possessing either a Green Card or a visa.
Though usually the International Entrepreneur Rule is called the Startup Visa, the same is really a permit to the overseas entrepreneurs to live in the nation, for a period of two and a half years with the option of a comparable extension.
Although the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) was to come into force from July 17, 2017, less than 7 days before that, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly declared that it would be deferred to March 14, 2018 and that it intended to cancel the final regulation.
This action of the DHS–allegedly at the order of the Trump government–provoked a group of entrepreneurs, with some of them from India, along with the concerned US-based organization, to approach the US Federal Court to file a court case.
Reportedly, the complainants claimed that given that the DHS had failed to ask for advance comments from the common man on the deferral, the same had dishonored the clear necessities of the Administrative Procedure Act. Sufferings that the suspension caused to the complainants were also highlighted. Apart from this, they argued that the country would end of as losers and greatly miss out on the economic movement that would have been created, thanks to these new companies.
The order made public now forces the DHS (the Citizenship and Immigration Services wing comes in its realm) to start admitting petitions from the entrepreneurs from abroad.
Allegedly, the court’s directive ratifies that while the American governments may change, the rudimentary legal requirements confirm agency transparency, promise public involvement, and stop intolerant, ill-baked rule amendments. The court has reportedly observed that the Trump administration’s postponement of the International Entrepreneur Rule was anything but legal.
Significantly, a lot was at risk for every overseas entrepreneur and US investors and not just the petitioners. Conventionally, the US has been known to offer a rather satisfactory environment for the startups. As per a 2016 study by a well-known body, immigrants have launched over 50% (44 of 87) startups in the nation worth 1 billion US Dollars or more even as Indians were behind the launch of 14 of these startups.
