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Foreign entrepreneurs seek opportunity in immigration visa
As both U.S. residents and those living abroad try to carve out their niche in the marketplace, immigrant visas such as those made available under the EB-5 visa program have continually helped workers realize their goals.
When Bettina Hein, a Swiss citizen, graduated from the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Global Leadership in 2007, she had the idea of starting an online video editing service in the U.S, EDN.com reports.
Though she was able to finance her proposal and was an experienced entrepreneur, having started a speech technology company in Switzerland, Hein faced the obstacle of obtaining a visa that would allow her to live and work in the U.S.
As lawmakers continue to address the success of the EB-5 visa program in creating U.S. jobs, and fulfilling the dreams of some immigrant investors, some are proposing expanding the visa program to suit foreign entrepreneurs as well as shareholders.
Vivek Wadhaw, director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University, told the news source, “[Foreign nationals] aren’t taking anyone’s job away, why not give them a visa to start a company?”
In the meantime, the number of approved EB-5 visas has nearly tripled recently, from 1,443 issued visas in fiscal year 2008 to 4,218 in 2009, according to the U.S. State Department.