A group of entrepreneurs, including some from In dia, along with US-based National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), filed a lawsuit last month against the Trump administration for delaying the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), that would have enabled foreign entrepreneurs to operate in the US. In common parlance, IER is referred to as the `startup visa'.
On September 29, this group of plaintiffs also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in a federal court in Washington DC. The objective was to compel the US Department of Homeland Security (the Citizenship and Immigration Se rvices wing falls in its ambit) to implement the IER and begin processing applications from entrepreneurs, pending disposal of the lawsuit. Omni Labs, which provides clients digital platforms for data visualisation and analytics, had set up a US entity in 2015. Yet two of its founders--Nishant Srivasta va and Vikram Tiwari--couldn't obtain work visas. Both finally got Canadian work visas. The petition that has been filed points out that as these cofounders cannot come to the US, the company was forced to set up an office in Canada. Aside from costs involved in setting up the Vancouver office and obtaining Canadian work permits or the challenges relating to obtaining future US funding, operational challenges arise. “Omni's US employees must either work with these founders remotely or travel to Vancouver, which they do roughly once every two months,“ adds the petition.
India-origin brothers, Atma and Anand Krishna, co-founders of LotusPay , a digital payment platform, had set up a US holding company in the US state of Delaware in May 2017.This was a pre-condition for participating in the Y Combinator programme, which could result in funding from this early stage investor. LotusPay obtained $120,000 from this investor and attracted interest from other US investors besides a list of prospective customers. But as the IER was not introduced, plans fell apart. “The US market is very attractive to LotusPay , and its platform ...would be a boon to US-based companies and the economy ,“ the petition said. The brothers have been unable to obtain any other form of lawful status in the US. This makes it far more difficult for them to launch their platform in the US, and hire or work in the same location as USbased employees. Further, US-based investors have a comfort level if founders are based in the US, the petition explains.
In addition to the NVCA, the Krishna brothers, and Omni Labs, another company--Peak Labs is also a plaintiff.Its chief architect, a Dutch national, was unable to obtain a work visa and is forced to work from the Netherlands. Paul Hughes, a partner at Mayer Brown LLP--one of the firms involved in representing the plantiffs-explains: “The Department of Homeland Security suspended the IER six days before it was to take effect.Hundreds of entrepreneurs would have benefited from the programme.“
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