NFAP: IMMIGRANTS BEHIND HALF OF VENTURE FUNDED START-UPS

In case you think that those who say our restrictive immigration policies hurt America's ability to compete and generate good jobs are just spouting off unsubstantiated arguments, here is proof that they're right. From the Wall Street Journal:

Immigrants have started nearly half of America’s 50 top venture-funded companies and are key members of management or product development teams in almost 75 percent of those companies.
Those are the results of a new study by the National Foundation for American Policy, which cites the numbers in calling for changes to immigration policy to make it easier for immigrant entrepreneurs to come to the United States and begin building companies.
Using the “Next Big Thing” list of Top 50 venture-funded companies published in March 2011 in The Wall Street Journal and compiled by research firm VentureSource, a unit of Journal owner News Corp., the research finds that 46 percent, or 23 out of 50, of the country’s top venture-funded companies had at least one immigrant founder.
The research also found that 37 of the top 50 companies, or 74 percent, had at least one immigrant helping the company grow and innovate by filling a key management or product development position. Chief technology officer, chief executive and vice president of engineering are the most common positions held by immigrants in the top 50 venture-backed companies.

The NFAP report notes that legislation is needed to ensure we continue to attract these business superstars. Unfortunately, we have a dysfunctional Congress where most members probably agree that we need changes to attract entrepreneurs but are so cowed by a tiny minority of antis that they're afraid to make even modest changes, much less do anything bold.

The study by the National Foundation of American Policy can be found at:
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/NFAPPolicyBriefImmigrantFoundersandKeyPersonnelinAmericasTopVentureFundedCompanies.pdf

H-1B CAP EXHAUSTED, SO NOW WHAT?

The H-1B cap has been reached or exhausted for government fiscal year 2012. New visas for cap-subject cases can be filed on April 1, 2012 for a start date on October 1, 2012, for government fiscal year 2013.
What happens now with companies who wish to hire and people who wish to work during this year?
The good news for students currently enrolled in school is that if they graduate in May 2012 and receive Optional Practical Training or OPT, and even for those whose OPTs expire in May or June 2012, they can continue to work if a new H-1B petition is filed for them in April 2012 and a change of status is requested.
Another option would be to file an H-1B for a cap exempt organization. The most common cap exempt organizations are higher education institutions and non-profit research organizations. Employees working for these organizations are not counted against the cap. However, also employees that work for a for-profit company that predominately services these cap-exempt organizations may qualify for an H-1B cap exemption. This is a very common scenario in physician practice. Many physicians work for private practice groups but they actually perform their services in hospitals that are either university hospitals or non-profit hospitals that may be classified as research hospitals and in that case those physicians can still claim their cap exemption and be granted H-1B status in the mean time, even though the visas are gone.
For additional questions, please visit our physicians immigration site:
http://www.physiciansimmigration.com/