- March 16, 2012
- Category: Immigration Reform, Start Up Visa Act, Startup Visa
I have previously blogged about the benefits of the Start Up Visa Act. In my most recent blog, I noted that this bill is in the first step in the legislative process. After a year, not much has happened since the Start Up Visa Act had been reintroduced. So, how would the average supporter of this legislation advocate for its passage?
Here are some steps most could take advantage of when advocating for this legislation:
1. Contact your Local Congressional Representative: Click HOUSE to find your local congressman.
2. Contact your State’s Senator: Click SENATE
3. USE SOCIAL MEDIA: The Start Up Visa Act is tailor made for the social media savvy. Here are some suggestions:
A] Get your Senator or Congressman’s TWITTER HANDLE
B] Start a fan appreciation page on your own Facebook profile
C] Start Up Visa.com is a web page in support of the Start Up Visa Act. Some prominent entrepreneurs have created this web site. You can both do a Facebook “Like” and Tweet your support of #startupvisa on this website. The website asks its supporters to use the following tweet: “I support #Startupvisa! Show your support at http://startupvisa.com vía @startupvisa“
D] Come up with your own unique idea. The possibilities are endless. The target audience is both the public and your local senator or congressional representative.
4. Create a Campaign Style Strategy: Craig Montuori is the Executive Director of PolitiHacks. He has excellent suggestions on how to advocate for this bill. He states that this is an “inside-game biz.” His main point is that advocates need to focus on this as a bill that CREATES JOBS, rather than benefiting immigrants. It is an excellent point. Say you have a foreign university graduate with an idea that could be the next Big Thing(the next Google, Facebook, Apple Etc…). Is that graduate going to go work under an H-1B visa making $50k and working 40 hours a week for some company? Of course not. If that graduate cannot obtain a visa here in the United States, he or she will go home or to another country, and start up that company. A company like that could create thousands of jobs. This is what our politicians need to remember.
Extremely well-written, insightful piece.
Just put me down as the Executive Director of PolitiHacks, rather than listing out my role. I provide political coordination for advocacy on behalf of the entrepreneurial community.
It’s a new non-profit. Are you on the econ-dev mailing list? Not exactly sure how I got tagged with that title.
Thanks for the input, Craig. Please include me on the econ-dev mailing list.
You should be able to sign up here: http://groups.google.com/group/econ-dev
Excellent. Thank you, Craig.
[…] Danny is a foreign student about to graduate from business school. By the end of his program, he had already launched a successful business venture, with several venture capitalists backing the idea. However, he could not obtain the right type of visa to stay here and run his business. Eventually, he moved to Canada, a country that does grant a visa for foreign entrepreneurs. The video shows why we need the proposed START-UP VISA ACT. Click here for ways to ADVOCATE FOR IT. […]