U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on December 14, 2017, that it is taking steps to implement the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) in accordance with a recent court decision. USCIS noted that while the agency implements the IER, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will also “proceed with issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) seeking to remove the Jan. 17, 2017, IER. DHS is in the final stages of drafting the NPRM.”
USCIS explained that although the IER was published during the previous administration with an effective date of July 17, 2017, it did not take effect because DHS issued a final rule on July 11, 2017, delaying the IER’s effective date until March 14, 2018. USCIS said this “delay rule” was meant to give USCIS time to review the IER and, if necessary, to issue a rule proposing to remove the IER program regulations. However, a December 1, 2017, ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in National Venture Capital Association v. Duke vacated USCIS’s final rule to delay the effective date.
The IER is intended to provide international entrepreneurs a new avenue to apply for parole, enter the United States, and invest in establishing and growing start-up businesses. The rule establishes new criteria to guide the adjudication of parole applications from certain foreign entrepreneurs, providing them with temporary admission. The rule does not afford a path to citizenship.
Miller Mayer has published an alert about the EIR rule. If you would like a consultation to determine whether you qualify for the international entrepreneur rule, email info@millermayer.com.
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