There are tens of thousands of wealthy, supremely talented or recently US educated individuals who were born elsewhere who want to come here or stay here. Oddly, in a time where global competition is driven and won or lost based on intellect and creativity rather than labor, the US immigration policies limit the number of exceptional individuals who can enter the country each year. WHY?
For example, the EB-5 visa program provides a route to a permanent resident visa to anyone who invests $500,000 into a new business located in a distressed or rural part of the U.S. These are very wealthy individuals and their families, investing in high-risk start-up companies, that each must generate 10 new full-time jobs in our high unemployment inner cities and rural small towns. There are 22,000 applicants waiting to do this. We limit the number “allowed” to do this to about 10,000 visas, which includes the investor’s spouse and children under 18. If every investor has on average a family of 3, those 10,000 visas result in only 3300 investments instead of 22,000.
Let’s put that into perspective. If all 22,000 people who want to, are permitted to invest the $500,000 minimum into new US companies in distressed communities that would be an influx of ELEVEN BILLION DOLLARS and 220,000 new full time jobs into the US economy, not to mention the additional billions that these investors own and would bring with them and spend here.
The program takes 12 months to 2 years to vet each potential investor on a whole host of issues, including connections to criminal or terrorist activities. So why would we not open this up to anyone who wants to take advantage of this program? Are we concerned that we are taking away high-risk investment opportunities from our wealthy citizens?
The US also issues what are referred to as O-1 visas, and they do so extremely sparingly and on only a temporary basis. Here is who is permitted under this visa:
“To qualify for an O-1 visa, the beneficiary must demonstrate extraordinary ability by sustained national or international acclaim and must be coming temporarily to the United States to continue work in the area of extraordinary ability.” USCIS website.
Why would we limit these outstanding people in any way from coming here and staying here for as long as they wish?
H1-B visas are designed to help US educated individuals stay here after they graduate. It is great that after we invest in the development and education of these individuals that we allow them to stay and use that knowledge here. The problem is that they can only stay for three years and we issue only 65,000 of those visas each year. That seems like a lot, but it is not nearly enough. In excess of 800,000 foreign born students enrolled in US Universities every year. There are several million enrolled at any one time across undergraduate and graduate levels. They fill large percentages of the total graduate student populations.
The problem is that for those few allowed to stay at the end of three years the US educated talent must return to their home countries and then apply for a permanent resident green card from there to get back here. How ridiculous is that?
There is more to it, of course, but the bottom line is why on earth does the US limit the number of highly educated or high net wealth individuals from entering this country. We should be reaching out and recruiting them to come here to spend and invest their money and talent in growing America. Wherever you may stand on the immigration of lower-skilled workers walking across our borders, the growth of this country through immigration of geniuses and wealthy investors who fly here should be a no brainer.
Am I wrong? Just wondering?
graphic via shutterstock.com
Author of five novels available on Amazon, numerous articles and other commentary.