Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Door to $Capital Heaven

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us-mission-vancouver

A country’s embassies and consulates are that nation’s territory, subject to its laws, rules, and customs.

Some time ago, I asked the US State Department to create an incubator inside the Vancouver consulate.

Every day, I could walk to my office in America without having to leave Canada. An embassy official appreciated the creativity but said no dice.

Hence the “Border Entrepreneur Visa” proposal, posted earlier this week: http://davehuer.com/blog/replacing-the-us-eb-1-and-e-1-with-a-be-1-visa/

 

 

 

Image: Seal of the US Consulate, Vancouver, BC. Public Domain: https://www.flickr.com/photos/us_mission_canada/4770405952 – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Replacing the US EB-1 and E-1 with a BE-1 Visa?

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Many entrepreneurs need to follow the money to Silicon Valley. But US visa programs can be a challenge.

Blueseed Ventures offered a solution: Putting a tech incubator in international waters with a ferry traveling to San Francisco every day.

Lots of interest but not enough funders. Not to mention legal entanglements such as border controls and inspections, all rightfully a responsibility of the United States to its citizens.

Is a new visa program, paradoxically, the easier way?

100 miles inland & 100 miles offshore

Could the US create a new “Border Entrepreneur visa (BE-1)” that allows entrepreneurs to enter and operate startups and companies on US soil, to get access to US capital, without living in the USA?

Here is my thinking:

  • 100-mile border zone inside US land border
  • 100-mile border zone adjacent to the coastline of US states and territories
  • Visa region includes US territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, etc)
  • US citizens get priority hiring as employees (core team exempt from the rule)
  • Mutual benefit for entrepreneurs and US economy
  • US evaluates entrepreneurs without having the entrepreneur burden US services
bc-wa-border-visa-zone

Washington State/BC Border Zone

Example: a BC entrepreneur could operate in Whatcom County (Blaine, Bellingham, Ferndale) and return home to Vancouver every evening. Or simply move to Seattle or Tacoma.

 

 

What would this do for Plattsburg, NY, or Detroit, MI, or Yuma, AZ?

Could this alleviate the ‘undocumented alien’ challenge along the Mexican border? And produce certainty for authorities and law-abiding immigrants?

Could BE-1 visa holders demonstrating good citizenship and contributions to the economy “graduate” to the resident visa/citizenship stream?

Could the BE-1 produce legal/economic certainty for sea-stead ventures located between the coastline, and the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone or 12-mile offshore treaty border?