Mumbai: The US has announced a new programme whereby an Indian entrepreneur can set up an enterprise in the US with additional investment from a US investor.
Called Parole, this could come into effect by June or July. The advantage, said Mark Davies, chairman of Davies & Associates, LLC which focuses on immigration, is that it means less investment for the Indian entrepreneur and there is no need to create a certain number of jobs as required in the case of the H1-B visa. It is probably done to encourage investments in the US, he added.
However he says there are several better options than the H1-B that can be used to migrate to the US, like the EB-5 and L visa programmes that are more superior to the H-1B programme which is lottery based. These programmes have no salary limits and there are no numerical limits on L visas.
The EB-5 programme is an investor visa programme while the EB-1 visa is for extraordinary skilled people. Also, the current TEA investment requirement in EB-5 is $500,000. The proposed new government rule would increase that investment requirement from $500,000 to $1,350,000.
This programme is being used by Indian billionaires and other high net individuals, partly because the HI-B visas will no longer be a ticket for post graduates to get jobs in the US.
So they are trying to protect themselves from either the termination of the programme or a substantial increase in the required capital by filing for the I-526 before April.
Immigration reform is a central tenet of Mr Trump’s push for companies to invest and hire more in the US.
Mr Davies said that their clients invest in regional centres in the United States in diverse fields ranging from real estate, and development projects to factories and IT businesses.
Also, with the EB-5 programme expiring in April, a large number of Indian applicants are trying to protect themselves from either the termination of the programme or a substantial increase in the required capital by filing for the I-526 before April. There is a discussion on increasing the present $70,000 per worker to $1.3 million.
