There is a new sheriff in town, and this sheriff promises to be friendlier to immigrant entrepreneurs. Since the Joe Biden administration took over on January 8, 2021, many pro-immigration policies have rolled out.
A few of these policies specifically target immigrant business owners to make them feel more welcome and help them build innovative businesses that will empower immigrants, create employment opportunities for others, and let the USA remain that country that anyone can rise from nothing to something by sheer hard work.
Thanks to these friendlier policies, immigrant business owners in the US can access business financing from Camino financial and others. This article discusses the recent opportunities open to immigrant business owners in the United States as a result of the Biden Administration and other people.
Reinstatement of the International Entrepreneur Program
The Obama administration created the International Entrepreneur program to recognize the importance of foreign entrepreneurs to the United States. The administration had noted that immigrant business owners played a significant role in disruptive technologies and creativity. For example, the founders of Tesla, Yahoo, and Google are immigrants. They have employed a lot of people and contributed significantly to the economy of the US. Pharmaceutical Immigrants founded companies like Moderna and Pfizer that developed COVID-19 vaccines.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) established the International entrepreneur program to encourage skilled immigrants to come to the US. The program allowed parole for skilled immigrants along with their wives and children with possibilities of extensions. The program also encourages foreign student graduates of colleges in the United States to stay behind and start businesses in the US.
Immigrants eligible for the program must work in businesses that meet specific requirements on ownership, growth, awards, and investments. Their spouse and kids can also apply under them. Their spouse will be allowed to work under the arrangement, but kids won’t be allowed to work.
Former President Trump canceled the program, but President Joe Biden has reinstated it. President Biden’s team recognizes the importance of the program in growing the US economy. Three thousand immigrant business owners are expected to apply for the program every year, with over 10,000 jobs expected to be created yearly. The program is expected to inject over $18 billion of indirect value into the US economy over ten years. Over ten years, the program will also account for $25 billion of direct wages to the US economy.
More financing options for immigrant business owners
There are now more funding programs that help immigrant business owners and their businesses. For example, companies like Camino Financial offer small business funding for immigrant entrepreneurs that don’t have social security number yet. These immigrant founders can now use their ITIN or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to apply for loans. This wasn’t possible before, as entrepreneurs could only apply for loans with their SSN.
Also, immigrant founders that don’t have a credit history yet can now get loans to help their businesses. This is as opposed to the past where organizations refused to lend immigrant business owners business loans without a credit history.
Conclusion
Things are looking much better for immigrant business owners in the United States. The new administration is more friendly towards immigrants, and these positive trends are expected to continue. Also, the new Biden Administration has instilled a better sense of trust and positivity in immigrant businesses. This is opposed to the negative lens that immigrant businesses were viewed under a few years back. It is hoped that this positive trend will continue.