As expected, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has delayed the effective date of the International Entrepreneur Rule that was scheduled to take effect July 17, 2017. The Federal Register notice, published on July 11, 2017, states that this delay “will provide DHS with an opportunity to obtain comments from the public regarding a proposal to rescind the rule pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13767, ‘Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements.'”
The new effective date for the final rule, with one exception, is March 14, 2018. In the final rule, DHS added the Department of State Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) to the regulatory text and to the “List C” listing of acceptable documents for Form I-9 verification purposes. As part of the final rule, DHS also revised the accompanying form instructions to reflect this change. As this provision is unrelated to entrepreneur parole under the final rule, this one provision will go into effect on July 17, 2017, as originally provided, the notice states.
The final rule amended DHS regulations to include criteria that would guide the implementation of the Secretary of Homeland Security’s discretionary case-by-case parole authority as applied to international entrepreneurs. Specifically, the notice states, it applied to international entrepreneurs who can demonstrate that their parole into the United States under § 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) would provide a significant public benefit to the United States. In accordance with the final rule’s criteria, such potential would be indicated by, among other things, the receipt of significant capital investment from U.S. investors with established records of successful investments, or obtaining significant awards or grants from certain federal, state, or local government entities. In addition to defining criteria for the favorable exercise of the Secretary’s discretionary parole authority, the final rule established a period of initial parole stay of up to 30 months (which may be extended by up to an additional 30 months) to facilitate the applicant’s ability to oversee and grow his or her start-up entity in the United States.
Comments may be submitted by August 10, 2017, by following the instructions in the notice at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/07/11/2017-14619/international-entrepreneur-rule-delay-of-effective-date. A letter from a group of investors and startup founders in support of the International Entrepreneur Rule is at http://nvca.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Letter-to-President-Trump-on-IER-from-emerging-ecosystems.pdf. The original final rule is at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-01-17/pdf/2017-00481.pdf.