Should graduates go or stay in the U.S. to retain talents with visas?

Graduates go or stay in the US government visa to retain talents? In 2008, Poyan Rajamand graduated from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business Administration...

In 2008, Poyan Rajamand graduated from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business Administration. He had to face a choice. Will Swedish-born Rojaman find a job in the United States or relocate to another country?

Finally, he and his fiancée made a decision.

Rohaman said that it was really easy to make this decision. He said: "We decided to move to Singapore because it is so easy to get a visa there and highly skilled newcomers are absolutely welcome. On the contrary, it is not the same in the United States."

After moving to the new country, Rohaman has set up a company called Barghest Partners to specialize in investing in new businesses.

Imagine if the U.S. work visa issue that has been plaguing Rohaman also affects other high-tech or professional graduates, opportunities will be lost to create jobs, innovate technology and revitalize the economy. Just as the founders of some large companies in the United States, such as AT&T Telephone Company, Kraft Foods, Honeywell, US Steel and DuyPont, were also founded by new immigrants.

Even the new industries in recent years, the founders of Google, Intel and eBay are also new immigrants. If the work visa problem in the United States causes trouble to foreign-born graduates, many new industries may automatically move to other countries for development.

As a nation attempts to recover from its worst recession, Americans should understand the competitiveness of economies around the world. When the U.S. immigration policy fails to help talented new immigrants or graduates stay in the U.S. to develop or start a business, or contribute to the economy, it is tantamount to reducing the U.S.'s economic competitiveness advantage.

>This situation must change.

In order to understand the urgency of today’s high-tech immigration system in the United States, we must first analyze the entrepreneurial trends in the United States over the past 30 years.

Since the early 1980s, new startups have created approximately 40 million American jobs, accounting for all net job growth during this period.

Although large companies and small businesses in the United States still maintain their current labor levels, fast-growing startups, such as Twitter, Chobani, Under Armor, etc., create the latest contemporary employment opportunities and lead global trends, which is crucial. In recent years, however, the U.S. entrepreneurial ecosystem has been losing job growth at its historical pace. For example, from 2005 to 2010, the number of entrepreneurs and employment growth decreased by more than 25% in five years.

Startups are adding fewer jobs than in past decades. Initial public offerings (IPOs) of small and medium-sized companies have dropped significantly from 80% in the 1990s to only 20% of total IPOs today.

More and more student debt in the United States has become a burden on entrepreneurs. In addition, global entrepreneurship has added additional competition, making it more challenging for young Americans to start a business. Every year, due to the existing cap on immigration quotas, at least 20,000 foreign graduates, like Rohaman, choose to leave the United States and develop their careers elsewhere.

However, it is well known that 40% of the founders of Fortune 500 American companies are immigrants or their children.

Between 1995 and 2005, half of the companies started in Silicon Valley were founded by immigrants.

In 2005 alone, American companies founded by immigrants achieved sales of US$52 billion and provided more than 400,000 jobs in the engineering and technology industries.

Other countries, such as Singapore, Germany, China, India and Canada, are trying to attract the best and brightest young people, with most targeting graduates trained at US universities. Earlier this year, entrepreneurs from across the country came together to urge the White House and Congress to pass legislation aimed at helping entrepreneurs raise capital and grow.

A broad coalition of Democrats, Republicans, entrepreneurs, academics, investors, and ordinary Americans have proposed smart policy reforms designed to encourage activity across the country that spurs entrepreneurship.

Despite the reluctance of the two parties to come together in an election year, in April this year, President Obama signed the "JOBS" bill with Majority Leader Cantor at the White House, proposing to assist in expanding capital raising in the early stages of entrepreneurship, creating a transitional opportunity to encourage small and medium-sized companies to consider IPOs, and updating securities rules to enable more companies to solicit investment opportunities.

Taken together, the JOBS Act is an important first step economically and politically. However, it is only one step. Now, the United States must turn its attention to its immigration system and how to retain highly skilled immigrants before it is too late.

At the beginning of this year, Republican Senators Marco Rubio (Marco Rubio) and Jerry Moran (Jerry Moran), together with Democrats Mark Warner (Mark Warner) and Chris Coons (Chris Coons), launched the Startup Startup Act 2.0, proposing three reforms to the visa system.

First, the bill proposes to eliminate employment-based immigrant visa caps for each country, which can shorten the waiting time for visas, so that American companies can have greater flexibility to retain talent.

Secondly, the bill also creates a new visa category, allowing graduates with a master's or doctoral degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics to directly apply for a green card.

Finally, the legislation proposes to create an entrepreneur visa to give legal immigrants who remain in the United States the opportunity to start a business and hire American workers, increasing job opportunities.

No matter who is elected President of the United States in 2013, he should pass this Startup Startup Act 2.0. These reforms are neither expensive nor controversial, but they offer a simple fix that could help spur a new wave of entrepreneurial activity across the country.

Historically, the United States was created by entrepreneurs. The most iconic companies and famous cities were built by men and women with dreams. In the face of great adversity, they believed that tomorrow would be a better day.

When Americans want to write the next chapter of history, it seems that they need to return to the roots of business, improve the environment, create opportunities for the new generation, do what they do best, and pioneer the spirit of adventurers.

By repairing a broken high-skilled immigration system and encouraging the world's talented young people to immigrate to the United States to innovate and contribute, we will once again ensure that the United States is the world's leading advantage and has the most entrepreneurial economic system.