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     Ashton Hero Username: Ashton Post Number: 15027 Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 50.7.12.2 Rating: N/A |
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/01/ businessinsiderits-crazy-that-the-u.DTL Cruisewise CEO Amit Aharoni is the face of an immigrant entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, and knows what it feels like to be kicked out of the country after his visa application was denied. He had no choice but to pack his bags and leave his company Cruisewise behind. While Aharoni flew to Canada and stayed with a friend, he continued to keep tabs on his San Francisco team by holding meetings via Skype calls. In November, ABC ran a story to shed light on his situation. His visa was approved the next day. Aharoni admits he was lucky, even though the whole ordeal lasted six weeks. While not all cases of visa denials make national headlines, Aharoni went through something all foreign-born innovators must face if they hope to start companies in the United States and create jobs. They must apply for a visa, and wait to see if it is accepted or denied. For every high-skilled visa, five additional jobs are created. Yet, there's a disconnect in the visa process. Usually immigrant entrepreneurs have to be sponsored by a family member or work for an American company, so they can get permanent residency before starting their own company. Or entrepreneurs can apply for the H-1B visa, like Aharoni did. It allows workers sponsored by employees to fill jobs in "specialty occupations" that require a B.A. or higher. "The H-1B is designed to match foreign workers to the needs of American companies. Until now, this visa has not been available to sponsor the self-employed, including founders and owners of companies," according to the Partnership for a New American Economy. The United States only gives out 65,000 H-1B visas a year and another 20,000 to those who graduate from U.S. universities. Last year, the visas ran out in October or November. Aharoni is worried the U.S. could start losing talent to other countries, if visa denials persist and barriers for starting a company continue to remain high. "Many countries such as Singapore and Chile are removing barriers to come and live in those countries. They realize this is how you create jobs. The U.S. is doing the exact opposite. They have a pool of talent that wants to come to here. Before 2008, the U.S. didn't really need to think about how to be competitive for talent. Now that it is fighting to keep jobs, it should be welcoming talent," he said. Cruisewise had a much better experience in Chile: it was the first team to go to the Startup Chile incubation program, which offered $40,000 and a temporary 1-year resident visa for foreign talent. "It's a nice contrast to what the U.S. is doing," Aharoni said. "We were very early stage back then, with just an idea and no resources. The program provided us the resources and runway we needed so that we could focus on one thing - building the prototype. That same prototype eventually allowed us to raise money when we came back to the US in January 2011." Cruisewise closed a round of $1.65 million in April 2011 from Index Ventures, NEA, SV Angels, and among others. It launched in the U.S. on February 14. And Aharoni has had time to settle back into his old desk in his San Francisco office. However, not everyone has a happy ending like Aharoni. Today, Aharoni received an emailed from an immigrant entrepreneur who is experiencing what he just went through: Karishma Baijal, VP of marketing for Weddington Way, is booking a ticket back to India after she was denied a visa because the position she was applying for wasn't considered a specialty occupation. Weddington Way raised more than $2 million and is generating $2 million in revenue, and while she played a huge part in that growth -- that didn't matter in the final decision. "My reason for the denial was on the same basis as Karishma's denial," Aharoni said. Initially, the decision was made based on the fact that a CEO at Cruisewise shouldn't require an advanced degree. "But it's a grey area," he said. "I never that it would ever be an issue. My company was legitimate, I secured investment, and created jobs. But I was forced to leave the country." |
