Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced this week that five local universities are piloting the Global Entrepreneur in Residence programs. The program is designed to help talented entrepreneurs in the U.S., EIR programs enable entrepreneurs to work with or for the universities while building their startups. EIR programs also help foreign entrepreneurs to obtain visas in order to do all of this.
A provision in the popular H-1B visa gives the American nonprofit research institutions a authority to sponsor applicants and be exempt from the 85,000 annual visa cap.
So those accepted into an EIR program do not have to cross their fingers to be admitted through the lottery system, that determines who receives the visas each year. That is becoming increasingly important, as the odds of getting a visa through the quota is get slimmer every year. In the year 2016, 236,000 foreigners applied for visas.
In Chicago, the participating universities include Columbia College, DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University and also the Northwestern University.
Each of the Chicago schools is expected to work with two to four founders apiece for the first year. In exchange, the entrepreneurs work either for a minimum number of hours at the sponsoring university, or engage in some other service component, like managing or employing the student interns.
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The Global EIR Coalition is a nonprofit group that helps schools set up and run EIR programs. It also connects them with the immigrant founders and helps universities work partner with private sector investors who have experience in vetting and reviewing startups.
The first Global Entrepreneur in Residence program, announced in the Massachusetts in 2014. The program has sponsored 23 entrepreneurs and created 406 jobs. According to Craig Montuori, the executive director of the coalition, the program has seen interest from colleges and universities all across the country.
The Chicago's announcement comes just before the start of new H-1B season, people can start applying for visas on April 3rd. The H-1B program itself is under increased scrutiny, as President Trump said he wants to crack down on misuse of work visas.
A draft executive order which started circulating in January would alter numerous visa programs, including the H-1B visa.
And several legislative efforts in the Congress, coming from both Republicans and Democrats, aim to change how the H-1B system works in a bid to squeeze out the abuse. So far, the only change to H-1B has been a temporary freeze on the "premium processing" option, which costs $1,225 and ensures an application will be reviewed within 15 days.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
