Janelle Irwin Taylor
Pinellas County’s U.S. Rep. David Jolly is proposing a bill that would restructure the way immigrants who own small businesses in the U.S. apply and re-apply for work visas.
The bill, which Jolly plans to file sometime in the next two weeks, would revise the current E-2 visa program for immigrant investors to make it easier for legal immigrants to continue doing business in the United States.
Small businesses like coffee shops, bakeries and small restaurants can generally qualify for an E-2 visa. Unlike the EB-5 visa program that requires a $1 million investment, E-2 visas only require a “substantial” investment. That figure is based on a variety of factors, including how much it costs to run a business verses how much revenue the business generates, instead of designating a hard number.
The smaller investment visa also does not provide a path to citizenship the way EB-5 does. Many people argue the EB-5 program is a way for wealthy immigrants to fast-track permanent residency. Instead, E-2 is a temporary work visa that requires recipients to re-apply every two years.
“I often say we’re a nation made better by immigration, but it’s not enough to just say that,” Jolly said.
Under his plan, E-2 recipients who successfully run a business for 10 years can fast-track permanent residency.
Jolly met with about 40 people who are affected by E-2 visas Wednesday morning at a restaurant in St. Pete. There he heard from immigrants the problems they face.
“Auditing is incredibly scrutinizing,” Jolly said of the way E-2 businesses are evaluated by the government.
Many of the immigrants end up having to leave the United States while they re-apply for an extension. That leaves businesses closed and people out of jobs.
Another problem Jolly hopes to address is making sure that families who move to the United States to start a business are able to stay together. Under current rules, children of immigrant business owners can only stay on their parent’s visa until age 21. Many children are forced to return to their home countries to finish their education rather than staying in the nation in which they grew up.
Under Jolly’s play, dependents could stay in the United States on their parent’s visa until 26.
Jolly’s bill comes at a time when Washington lawmakers continue to grapple with immigration reform. On one side, conservative lawmakers talk about border security and legal immigration while more liberal lawmakers on the left favor reform that provides a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. That reform would include a path for otherwise law- abiding immigrants and require them to pay taxes and fees.
Jolly said the country should look first at fixing its broken legal immigration system before addressing a populace he calls lawbreakers.
“I’m one of the few members in my party who says we should bring up comprehensive immigration reform,” Jolly said.
However, he cautions the issue may be too divisive for real progress.
“The advocacy groups on both sides are not going to get everything they want,” Jolly said.
One of the provisions of the E-2 visa program Jolly intends to address, keeping children on their parents’ visa longer, is aimed at making sure those kids can go to an American college.
At first glance, it would seem that the president’s executive order extending legal status to so-called “Dreamers,” children who were brought into the country illegally by their parents, would apply to E-2 students. Jolly said that’s not the case.
“It says if you’ve broken the law then you can stay; we’re going to accommodate you,” Jolly said. “But if you’ve followed the law, that doesn’t apply.”
Jolly said his actions on immigration are fueled by personal interactions he’s had while serving Pinellas County. Those include owners of a florist in Pinellas Park and a bakery in Indian Rocks Beach. There’s also his dad’s doctor.
“He asked me, what’s in it for me?” Jolly said.
That doctor lives in the United States on legal immigrant status and has to fight to keep it. He told Jolly it makes him mad to see people who skipped those steps and just came here illegally possibly get citizenship when he’s had to work hard to even head in that direction.
That’s why Jolly says, “bring it on the floor and let the House work its will,” when he’s asked about comprehensive immigration reform. In the meantime, he said he’s proposing the E-2 reform because he expects it to be successful.
“I’m asking all of those owners when this gets filed to talk about it on social media to try to drum up some sponsors,” Jolly said. “I don’t think it will be hard to get support.”
