Effective Date of the International Entrepreneur Rule Delayed

In the July 11, 2017, Federal Register, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a notice delaying the effective date of the International Entrepreneur Rule (IE Rule) from July 17, 2017, to March 14, 2018. The final rule amended DHS regulations to include criteria for the discretionary case-by-case parole of international entrepreneurs whose parole under INA section 212(d)(5) would provide a significant public benefit to the United States. Such criteria would include the entrepreneur's ability to generate significant capital investment from US investors or significant awards or grants from federal, state or local government entities for a startup business. The final rule provided for an initial parole period of up to 30 months, which may be extended by up to an additional 30 months to facilitate the parolee’s ability to oversee his or her startup entity in the United States.

The effective date of the IE Rule is being postponed in light of the January 25, 2017, Executive Order (E.O.) 13767, “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements .” The E.O., among other things, requires the DHS secretary to "take appropriate action to ensure that parole authority under section 212(d)(5) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)) is exercised only on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the plain language of the statute, and in all circumstances only when an individual demonstrates urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit derived from such parole." In addition to postponing the effective date of the IE Rule, DHS advised of its plan to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking public comments on a proposal to rescind the IE Rule.

It is important to note that DHS is not postponing the effective date of the IE Rule’s changes to the Form I-9 process. In the IE Rule, DHS revised 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(1)(v)(C)(2) to add the Department of State Consular Report of Birth Abroad as an acceptable “List C” document for Form I-9 verification purposes. This regulatory change and the concomitant revision to the accompanying form instructions will go into effect on July 17, 2017, as originally provided.