We are happy to read the Senate Bill incorporate the W visa, the INVEST visa, and many options that embrace the talent and skills offered by our diverse population. We will monitor how the new laws will impact small businesses. The full bill is found here  >>  http://www.schumer.senate.gov/forms/immigration.pdf

We are pleased about this legislative initiative. There are many reasons why we feel it is important to join the March for Innovation -some are listed below- but the top priority for us is to see entrepreneurs and innovators be given the opportunity to develop, establish and grow their business enterprises, which will boost our economy. Why? Starfish*Global is the product of the efforts of many immigrants. Our founders and partners share that entrepreneurial spirit and, as management consultants, have nurtured the dreams of others. We have removed the stereotypical box, stepped out of the mediocrity circle, and have taken the necessary steps forward… to go beyond the barriers of language, time zones and borders.  Would you join us?

www.marchforinnovation.com

March for Innovation Fact Sheet

It’s clear our immigration system is broken in this country. America is struggling to attract talent in large part because our immigration laws make it far too difficult for top innovators and entrepreneurs to create business in the United States.

• Every 100 immigrants who earn advanced degrees in the US and then stay to work in technical fields create 262 jobs for American workers.

• More than 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by an immigrant or a child of an immigrant.

• Of the Americans who have won Nobel Prizes have been immigrants, despite being just 1/8 of the population.

• 28% of all companies started in the US in 2011 had immigrant founders.

• One in every 10 workers in this country privately employed is employed by a

business owned by an immigrant.

• 76% of patents that the top 10 US patent-producing universities (Caltech, MIT, Stanford, etc.) received in 2011 had an immigrant inventor.

• Even if every American advanced degree STEM graduate gets a job, the US will face 200,000 unfilled advanced-degree STEM jobs by 2018.

• More than . of tech firms report difficulty hiring and the number of Americans studying STEM grows by less than 1% per year.

• Immigrants are more than twice as likely as the native born to start a business.

• Immigrant owned businesses generated more than $775 billion in revenue for the economy in 2011.

• Other countries are reforming their immigration laws to recruit the entrepreneurs, and engineers we are turning away.

• Chile offers $40,000 to entrepreneurs who start their businesses there.We don’t even offer them a visa.

For background and sources, please visit marchforinnovation.com/facts

Reina Valenzuela, MBA, CEO of Starfish*Global. Business Advisor at SBDC Rutgers University, The College of New Jersey, & William Paterson University