The International Entrepreneur Parole Program (IE) has been relaunched by United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). As we mentioned in an earlier post, the Biden Administration has relaunched the IE program for international entrepreneurs who have established their startups in the United States. The IE program allows international entrepreneurs, who otherwise do not meet other visa criteria, to be granted a period of authorized stay in the U.S. to grow their business. IE does not give immigration status to the approved applicants. Instead, qualifying applicants receive what is called “parole”, which is a temporary permission to enter and remain in the U.S for a specified period of time. The IE program does not provide a path to permanent residency.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on May 10, 2021 that they are withdrawing a Trump-era 2018 notice of proposed rulemaking that would have removed the International Entrepreneur (IE) Parole Program from DHS regulations. This move by the DHS is yet another pro-immigration decision resulting from President Biden’s Executive Order 14012, “Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans,” which directs the federal government to “develop welcoming strategies that promote integration, inclusion, and citizenship.”

The International Entrepreneur Parole Program (IE), created by the Obama administration in 2017 and suspended by the Trump administration just before the first eligible entrepreneurs could begin to submit applications, is meant help International entrepreneurs stay in the US to start and grow new companies. While the Trump administration tried to terminate the program, a federal court required US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2017 to begin accepting international entrepreneur parole applications consistent with the IE final rule. Since that time, USCIS has been accepting and adjudicating applications consistent with existing DHS regulations.