Who loves “Shark Tank”? I do! I have watched every episode. And I have learned so much from the show — from what an investor is looking for in an entrepreneur to delivering that final product to the consumer. I’ve learned how difficult it is to go from idea to prototype to raising funds to solving packaging and manufacturing problems to getting skews onto shelves and ultimately to success.

I love how human ingenuity can solve real-life problems, generate revenue, and create jobs. As a U.S. immigration attorney, an immigrant, and a business owner with employees, I understand many of the pain points that come with running a business. I get particularly excited when I see entrepreneurs with immigrant backgrounds making their pitches. I’m not only like them in so many ways, but they could be any one of my clients doing the same thing, while also struggling to get a visa so they could do it here in the United States.

We don’t yet have a visa that specifically allows them to do that (read my book, “The Startup Visa,” but we have a good alternative option sitting dormant and that it appears the Biden administration will revive. The International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) was created during the Obama administration to provide foreign business-minded folks an opportunity to enter the U.S. and put their business skills to work here. The rule is based on existing law and was finalized in January 2017. It was set to go into effect in the summer of 2017 until the Trump administration began the process to dismantle it. Like forgotten bounty, it is now gathering dust, as the mechanism to eliminate it completely was never finalized. As such, it can and apparently is now being revived by the Biden-Harris administration. What a boon that will be for the economy.

Much like the “Shark Tank” experience, the IER relies heavily on the credentials and expertise of investors. Applicants will have to show that they have raised at least $250,000 in capital funds from U.S. investors with a record of success. That success will be demonstrated by the investor proving they have invested at least $600,000 in the past five years, and that at least two of their investment companies have generated at least half a million dollars in revenue or created at least five full-time jobs. Similar to when “Shark Tank” sharks, the investors, say “we are investing in you” — the administration wants to feel it can rely on the expertise of the IER investors to know a good business opportunity when they see it.

As an alternative to private investment, the entrepreneur can rely on awards and grants from federal, state, or local government for at least $100,000 for the application.

The entrepreneur must also have at least 10% ownership of the business, and earn a salary while in the United States. Up to three co-founders may apply for a single startup, and the IER visa will allow them each visas with two 2.5-year intervals to stay and grow their businesses. After that, the hope is that the entrepreneurs will change status to a different temporary or permanent visa category.

Why is this important now?

COVID-19 has shown us the important role immigrants play keeping the U.S. functioning during unprecedented and challenging times. It’s always been that way. In addition to providing critical, life-giving care throughout the health care industry, immigrants have also been key in other areas, too. Zoom, for example, founded by a Chinese immigrant, has kept us functioning as a country — from schools to offices to socializing and more. And Moderna, co-founded by immigrants, is literally saving lives through the COVID-19 vaccines it produces.

A 2020 report by the National Foundation for American Policy found that a startup visa could have created 1 million to 3.2 million U.S. jobs in a decade. And a 2017 report from the Center for American Entrepreneurship found that almost half of all Fortune 500 companies were founded by either immigrants or their children.  Elon Musk, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Estée Lauder, Nordstrom, Bose, and Levi’s jeans are only a few of the household names that belong to immigrants or children of immigrants.

While there is new momentum now around immigration reform, the Biden-backed immigration measure, U.S. Citizenship Act 2021, includes no provision for startup founders. And since it appears that with a divided Congress, piecemeal bills will be the way forward, we will need one for the startup visa, too.

We can get moving on that if President Biden would take action on IER to bring in new, job-creating immigrant entrepreneurs to help lift us out of this depressed economy.

Tahmina Watson is the founding attorney of Watson Immigration Law in Seattle, where she practices US immigration law focusing on business immigration. She has been blogging about immigration law since 2008 and has written numerous articles in many publications. She is the author of Legal Heroes in the Trump Era: Be Inspired. Expand Your Impact. Change the World and The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth and Economic Prosperity in America.  She is also the founder of The Washington Immigrant Defense Network (WIDEN), which funds and facilitates legal representation in the immigration courtroom, and co-founder of Airport Lawyers, which provided critical services during the early travel bans. Tahmina is regularly quoted in the media and is the host of the podcast Tahmina Talks Immigration. She was recently honored by the Puget Sound Business Journal as one of the 2020 Women of Influence. You can reach her by email at tahmina@watsonimmigrationlaw.com or follow her on Twitter at @tahminawatson.