TL;DR  Change immigration policy to benefit startups

TODO:  Attend USCIS's EIR Summit Wed, Feb 22nd and contribute.

1.  Email  [masked] to RSVP

2.  Show up.  Participate.

or if you can't attend...  

1.  Email [masked] 

2.  Tell DHS what fixing immigration would mean to you, your startup, your friends.

............

A few months back, we asked people to tell us their immigration nightmares, and we were overwhelmed by the response -- Sixty gut wrenching stories of people trying to found startups but can't because of immigration issues.

So, Laura and I have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes with the help of Craig Montuori ( Level 59 Startup Visa Paladin and Politihacker ), Mayor Bloomberg's office, investors, etc.. to find solutions to these problems.

Everybody's work on this is making a difference.

USCIS ( Immigration ) recently launched "Entrepreneur in Residence" program to look for solutions that don't require congressional approval.

The EIR program takes 5 entrepreneurs from the startup world, and 5 people from USCIS, reviews available visa categories, and does whatever possible to change those visa categories to make them more immigrant founder friendly.

H&F recommended two people for the program, and one of the EIR's is one of our recommendations, and is a member of Hackers & Founders Silicon Valley.

Now, we need your help.

People have no idea how _huge a problem this is for our community.  Let's educate them.

On Wednesday, February 22nd, from 8:30 am to 5:00pm USCIS is having a summit at Moffett field to kick off the EIR program.   They've opened RSVP's to all.

We need as many people as possible to:

1.  Email [masked] and request an RSVP

2.  Show up at the event, tell your story and participate.

or

1. Email [masked] to tell them what fixing immigration would mean to you, your startup, your friends.

If we can bring attention to this issue, and get it fixed, life sucks a whole lot less for immigrant founders.

Thanks,

Jonathan

P.S.  With the tweeting.. the submitting to sites, the upvoting.. the Facebooking and the promoting, please.  This one's important.

Official information on Summit here.