International Entrepreneur Parole: A New(ish) Immigration Option for International Entrepreneurs

By: Kate Kuhn

Many international entrepreneurs wish to enter the United States to grow their start-up endeavors. Unfortunately, many existing visa or immigration options do not adapt well to the entrepreneurial context. The International Entrepreneur Parole (IEP) program is an attempt to fill this gap by creating a path for international entrepreneurs to enter and live in the United States if their presence would provide a “significant public benefit.”  This post will introduce the International Entrepreneur Parole Program, discuss IEP program requirements, and weigh considerations for an entrepreneur who may be exploring this option.

What is Parole?

Parole is a type of immigration status that allows an individual to enter the United States. In the IEP context, a grant of parole allows an international entrepreneur to enter the U.S. for a specified period of time to pursue their start-up endeavor. Up to three individual entrepreneurs can apply for IEP based on the same start-up enterprise, assuming all three individually meet the requirements of the program. However, parole isn’t a visa and it doesn’t have a path to permanent residency in the United States.

Once approved, the entrepreneur can enter the United States for 2 ½ years.  It is possible to extend the parole for an additional 2 ½ years, so the total potential parole period is a maximum of five years. The IEP program also allows the entrepreneur’s spouse and children to apply to enter the U.S. as well. The entrepreneur can only work for his or her start-up, however, the entrepreneur’s spouse can apply for permission to work for any employer.

Historical Background

USCIS receives applications for IEP.

In 2014, Congress considered an international entrepreneur visa.  Ultimately, the visa proposal did not succeed.  The Obama Administration then proposed the International Entrepreneur Parole program as an alternative to the visa.  IEP was essentially dormant during the prior presidential administration, with only one individual successfully admitted under the program. The current administration is in the process of reviving the IEP, raising hopes it may soon provide an avenue for entrepreneurs to live and work in the United States.

Qualifications

There are a number of requirements that both the entrepreneur and the start-up must meet in order to be considered for IEP.

The requirements for the applicant are:

      • The applicant must show they play a “central and active role” in their start-up. To have a central and active role, the entrepreneur must demonstrate they are “well positioned to substantially promote the growth and success” of the endeavor.
      • The applicant must have at least a 10% ownership stake. The requirements for the ownership stake are more lenient for re-applications for parole.

The qualifications for the start-up entity are:

      • The start-up entity must have been formed within the past 5 years.
      • The start-up must have received certain qualifying investments or U.S. government grants within the previous 18 months. These investments or grants are meant to demonstrate the start-up’s potential for rapid growth.
      • The start-up’s qualifying investments must come from qualified investors. Qualified investors must be U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or an entity organized under the laws of the United States or any U.S. state. The qualified investors must have a history of making successful and substantial investments in other start-ups.

Considerations

An entrepreneur interested in the IEP program should weigh several aspects of the program.  To be admitted to the United States under IEP, the entrepreneur must be entering the United States from abroad.  That means that an individual who is currently in the United States in another immigration status—such as a student visa—would have to leave the United States and re-enter the country at an airport or border.

Another consideration is that, as mentioned above, parole does not create a path to permanent residency in the United States.  The lack of a path to permanent residency may be a major concern for those who hope to be in the United States long-term to oversee their current or future businesses.  Finally, since the IEP program is very new, the timeline for processing applications is unknown. While United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has provided guidance on IEP, there hasn’t been a significant number of approvals from which to draw guidance for future applicants. As a result, there is uncertainty inherent with an IEP parole application.

Conclusion

Is the International Entrepreneur Program a good option? The hope is that this program will allow entrepreneurs to enter the U.S. to grow their start-ups in such a way that benefits the American public.  Ultimately, the appropriateness of IEP will depend on the individual’s particular circumstances.  There may be other immigration options that are available to the entrepreneur. However, if there are not, the IEP program is one more possibility that did not exist before.  An immigration expert can help to determine if IEP, or any other immigration option, is the best option.

This post has been reproduced with the author’s permission. It was originally authored on February 10, 2022, and can be found here.

Kate Kuhn, at the time of this post, is a third-year law student at Penn State Dickinson Law. She is a member of Penn State Dickinson Law’s Law Review.

 

 

 

Sources:

International Entrepreneur Rule, 80 Fed. Reg. 5238 (Jan. 17, 2017), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-01-17/pdf/2017-00481.pdf

USCIS, International Entrepreneur Parole (2021), https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/humanitarian-parole/international-entrepreneur-parole

Hendrik Pretorius, International Entrepreneur Rule: A Modern Immigration Solution for Tech Startup Founders, Forbes, June 7, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/06/07/international-entrepreneur-rule-a-modern-immigration-solution-for-tech-startup-founders/?sh=28471068527b

AILA, Entrepreneur Parole Webinar, Dec. 7, 2021, https://agora.aila.org/store/products/view/entrepreneur-parole.

Photo Sources:

https://www.afar.com/magazine/worlds-most-powerful-passports

https://www.uscis.gov

https://www.hok.com/news/2021-07/laguardia-airports-terminal-b-is-worlds-first-to-achieve-leed-v4-gold-certification/

Author: Prof Prince

Professor Samantha Prince is an Associate Professor of Lawyering Skills and Entrepreneurship at Penn State Dickinson Law. She has a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, and was a partner in a regional law firm where she handled transactional matters that ranged from an initial public offering to regular representation of a publicly-traded company. Most of her clients were small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs, including start-ups. An expert in entrepreneurship law, she established the Penn State Dickinson Law entrepreneurship program, is an advisor for the Entrepreneurship Law Certificate that is available to students, and is the founder and moderator of the Inside Entrepreneurship Law blog.