Andrew Halliday has been planning to move to the US to run his blog, Exploring This Rock, for the past three years. But those plans are in disarray after the news that the introduction of a new startup visa is being blocked, an initiative he’d hoped to take advantage of.

“I’ve already spoken to a couple of investors … in principle we’d agreed to a $100,000 [£76,700] investment,” Halliday, who has a young family, says. “This has thrown [those plans] up in the air and puts everything on hold. There’s no point taking the money if I can’t move to the States. There are other ways of [doing that] but it becomes a lot more difficult and complicated.”

The new programme, coined the International Entrepreneur Rule (also known as entrepreneur parole), would have allowed foreign entrepreneurs who launch businesses in the US to live in the country for a renewable 30-month term, providing they can secure $100,000 (£77,000) in government grants, or $250,000 (£192,000) in venture capital funding. It was proposed by President Obama, and due to be introduced on 17 July, 2017. But its future is in doubt, after the Trump administration announced a delay until March 2018 and a review by the Department of Homeland Security, which is asking for comments on plans to abandon it altogether.

A number of US investors and startup founders had recently written to President Trump (pdf), urging him to keep the rule, saying: “We believe this rule will unleash considerable pent-up entrepreneurial energy, spur new companies and produce high-quality jobs”.

Immigration lawyer Janice Flynn from US Visa Solutions, says the decision to block the programme wasn’t a surprise, but it does complicate things. She has a number of clients who she had hoped the scheme would be suitable for, after the final regulation was published by the Obama administration before he left office in January 2017. She is now exploring other options, including the E2 Treaty Investor visa, and the O-1 visa, which is suitable for somebody with extraordinary achievement in their field.

“It’s about trying to fit somebody in – like a round peg in a square hole,” Flynn says. “I’ve had people calling since last year, asking about [the entrepreneur parole] ... It is really disappointing, because it would have opened things up for a lot of entrepreneurs.”

Travel ban uncertainty

It’s the latest move from an administration that has been criticised for having an anti-immigration stance. In January, Trump signed an “extreme vetting” executive order that banned refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.

The ban was blocked by the US courts but a revised order barring travel from six countries (Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Sudan) for those who do not have a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States”, has been allowed to temporarily go ahead by the supreme court. Arguments for a permanent ban will be heard in October.

For many British entrepreneurs, the uncertainty around the travel ban has made them reluctant to travel to the US. The founder of SoAmpli, Maz Nadjm, had a client meeting in Atlanta scheduled for January, when he heard about the first ban. He is a British citizen, but was born in Iran.

“My immediate reaction was, as if life wasn’t hard enough already to get a client as a startup … Now, my ethnicity, or the religion I was born into has become a challenge I have to solve as well. When I set up my business, I thought the issue might be my business plan, my product, or the way I’m selling it – not where I was born.”

Nadjm made contingency plans, and prepped colleagues to step in at the meeting if he was held at immigration on arrival to the US. In the end, he was let through security without incident but admits he was nervous. As well as clients, he has investors in New York and will continue to travel to the US. But a visa rule change in December 2015 (when Obama was in office), has made him think twice about visiting his parents in Iran.

“One of the reasons I haven’t visited is the fear factor of will I get into the US or not. Even if you have British citizenship and a passport, if you have been to that country in the past five years, you have to apply for a visa. For what I do, the US is a huge market.”

Despite the uncertainty, entrepreneurs still view the US as a desirable destination. Mark Davies, chair of Davies and Associates Immigration Attorneys, says the firm has experienced a significant increase in the number of entrepreneurs applying for visas to the US – most commonly the E1, E2, L1 and EB5 visas – and has had to hire extra lawyers to cope with the demand. He believes the size of the US market means it will always be a key destination for business owners.

“The parole would have granted someone entry to the US when they do not have an applicable visa to do so. This was Obama’s attempt to enact some immigration reform when Congress were unable to approve legislation authorising new or reformed visa types. That proposed new rule was quite restrictive in it’s requirements – all of our clients interested in this category have been able to obtain other visas.

“The US is definitely seen as a desirable place for entrepreneurs. We have a number of clients who have moved to Australia, Canada and other countries but then left and moved to the US. The US remains the most favoured country in the world for starting and growing a business.”

Flynn agrees and has also seen the volume of her work rise. “I wasn’t sure how people would react to the new administration. I was concerned entrepreneurs will think, we’re just not going to focus on the US any more. But if anything, it’s gotten busier.”

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