What is IER? Breaking Into America Without Breaking the Bank

Imagine securing the right to build your startup in the United States without investing a single dollar of your own money. While many entrepreneurs scramble to gather substantial personal capital for an E-2 visa, or wait in decades-long green card queues, there’s a lesser-known pathway that flips the traditional immigration model on its head. The International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) doesn’t focus on your personal wealth or which country issued your passport. Instead, it asks one elegant question: Has someone else believed in your vision enough to bet serious money on it? For entrepreneurs from non-treaty countries like China and India, who’ve long watched opportunities slip through bureaucratic cracks, this program represents something rare in U.S. immigration law: a pathway designed around how modern startups actually get built.

What is an International Entrepreneur Rule? 

The IER represents a distinctive pathway through which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) exercises its discretionary authority to grant periods of authorized stay to foreign entrepreneurs. This authorization, known as “parole,” is available to entrepreneurs who can demonstrate that their presence in the United States would provide significant public benefit through their business ventures.

Entrepreneurs who receive parole under this program are authorized to work exclusively for their startup business. The program also extends to family members, as the spouse and children of the paroled entrepreneur may be eligible to apply for parole as well, allowing families to remain together during the entrepreneur’s authorized stay in the United States. Additionally, they are eligible to file a separate Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, to work in the U.S. 

Understanding the Key Criteria

To qualify for the IER, you need to meet several important requirements that demonstrate both your ownership and active involvement in a promising U.S. startup. The following are the key requirements.

1. Ownership and Role
   • You must own a substantial interest in your startup—at least 10% of the company at the time of application—and play a central, active role in its operations and growth. Passive investors are not eligible.

2. Startup Criteria
   • Your company must be a U.S.-based legal entity that was founded within the past five years. Most importantly, it must demonstrate significant potential for rapid growth and job creation, as the IER aims to stimulate innovation and economic development in the United States. An applicant can demonstrate such potential through a qualified investment from qualified investors or a government grant (see more in the following paragraph).

3. Evidence of Funding or Grant
   • To prove your startup’s potential, you must show that it has recently secured substantial investment or a government grant. Specifically, within the past 18 months, your company should have received one of the following:
     • At least $311,071 from a qualified U.S. investor, or
     • At least $124,429 in awards or grants from a U.S. federal, state, or local government entity.
   • If your startup falls slightly short of these funding thresholds, you may still qualify by providing other compelling evidence of its potential for growth and job creation, though meeting the investment benchmarks offers the clearest path to approval.

4. Qualified Investor Requirements
   • Not all investors qualify under the IER. A qualified investor must be:
     • A U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, or
     • A U.S.-based organization majority-owned and controlled by such individuals.
   • Additionally, the investor must have a proven track record—over the past five years, they must have invested at least $746,571 in other startups, with at least two of those companies achieving measurable success (such as creating at least five jobs or generating substantial revenue growth).

5. Restrictions
   • You and your immediate family members cannot count as investors in your own application. Individuals who have been barred from securities activities or violated securities laws are also ineligible.
   • These safeguards ensure that only entrepreneurs with credible ventures and legitimate U.S. investment backing can benefit from the IER program.

How is it different from E-2?

The IER and the E-2 Treaty Investor visa both provide pathways for entrepreneurs to work on their U.S. business ventures, but they differ fundamentally in their requirements and target audience. The E-2 visa requires applicants to be nationals of a country that maintains a treaty of commerce and navigation with the United States, limiting eligibility to citizens of approximately 80 treaty countries. The IER has no nationality restrictions and is open to entrepreneurs from any country worldwide.

The E-2 is a nonimmigrant visa that grants formal admission to the United States, while the IER provides parole—authorized stay but not formal admission. This distinction matters for future immigration options: E-2 visa holders may be able to adjust their status to permanent residence while in the United States if they become eligible through some other category (for example, marriage to a U.S. citizen or an employment-based petition), whereas IER beneficiaries generally cannot adjust status and would need to depart to apply for a visa if they later qualify for another classification.

The most fundamental difference is whose money funds the business. The E-2 visa focuses on substantial capital investment in a U.S. business made by the entrepreneur themselves using their own personal funds. The IER requires investment from qualified third-party investors or grant from government entities—personal investments by the entrepreneur do not count toward the IER’s minimum threshold investment amount.

The E-2 visa does not specify exact minimum investment amounts but requires a “substantial” investment proportional to the business type—what’s substantial for a consulting firm differs from a manufacturing facility. See under “General Qualifications of a Treaty Investor. The IER establishes clear fixed thresholds: either at least $311,071 from qualified investors or at least $124,429 in government grants or awards received within the past 18 months.

For the E-2 visa, the foreign entrepreneur is the investor. For the IER, the investor’s identity and track record are critical. A “qualified investor” must be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or U.S.-based organization controlled by U.S. citizens or permanent residents, with a proven track record including having invested at least $746,571 total over the past five years in startups, with at least two investments resulting in companies that created significant jobs or revenue.

The E-2 visa is ideal for entrepreneurs from treaty countries who have substantial personal capital to invest and want indefinite renewal flexibility. The IER serves entrepreneurs of any nationality who have developed innovative startups that have attracted significant investment from experienced U.S. investors or government grants, but who may not have substantial personal capital to deploy.

Table 1: E-2 vs IER Comparison

Feature	E-2	IER
Nationality	Must be from one of ~80 treaty countries	Any country
Status Type	Formal visa admission	Parole (not formal admission)
Adjustment of Status	Can adjust status (apply for a green card) if eligible	Cannot adjust; must depart to apply for a visa
Funding Source	Entrepreneur’s own personal funds	Third-party investors or government grants only
Investment Amount	“Substantial” (varies by business)	$311,071 (investors) OR $124,429 (government grants)
Best For	Treaty country nationals with personal capital	Any nationality with third-party funding but limited personal capital

Who would benefit?

The IER offers particularly valuable opportunities for entrepreneurs from countries that face significant barriers to other U.S. immigration pathways. Two groups stand to benefit enormously from this program: Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs.

Chinese entrepreneurs face a unique challenge in the U.S. immigration system: China is not a treaty country for the E-2 visa. This means that, regardless of how much capital a Chinese entrepreneur has accumulated or how successful their business plan may be, the E-2 pathway is completely unavailable to them solely because of their nationality. This exclusion has long been a significant obstacle for Chinese founders and investors seeking to establish businesses in the United States.

The IER eliminates this nationality barrier entirely. Chinese entrepreneurs can qualify for the program based purely on the merits of their startup and the validation it has received from qualified investors or U.S. government entities. For a Chinese founder who has secured significant funding from established U.S. venture capital firms or angel investors, or who has received federal or state grants, the IER provides a pathway that simply didn’t exist before through the E-2 system.

This is especially valuable given the strength of China’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the growing number of Chinese founders building innovative technology companies. Many Chinese entrepreneurs have strong technical backgrounds, experience in rapidly scaling businesses in competitive markets, and increasingly, connections to U.S. investors interested in cross-border opportunities. The IER allows these entrepreneurs to leverage third-party validation from the U.S. investment community, rather than being excluded based on treaty status.

Indian entrepreneurs face a different but equally challenging situation. While India is not an E-2 treaty country either, the more pressing issue for Indian nationals is the extraordinary backlog in employment-based green card categories. Indian nationals currently face wait times that can extend for decades in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories due to per-country caps, and even the EB-5 investor category has developed significant backlogs for Indian applicants.

For Indian entrepreneurs working in the United States on H-1B visas, the path forward is often frustratingly limited. They may want to leave their employer to start their own company, but doing so typically means abandoning their place in the green card queue or losing their legal status entirely. The IER provides an alternative pathway that allows Indian entrepreneurs to establish and run their own startups without being tethered to an employer sponsor.

However, the IER is a temporary solution—it grants up to a maximum of five years of authorized stay but does not itself lead to permanent residence. After that period, entrepreneurs must transition to another status. While their own company could potentially sponsor them for an EB-2 or EB-3 green card, Indian nationals would still face the same long visa backlogs. Some alternatives may offer more flexibility, such as pursuing a self-sponsored EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) or EB-1A petition, or shifting to an O-1 visa based on their entrepreneurial achievements. In certain cases, the EB-5 immigrant investor route or an H-1B through their own company may also be viable.

Moreover, the IER’s focus on third-party validation aligns well with the profile of many Indian entrepreneurs in the technology sector. Indian founders have increasingly attracted attention and investment from top-tier U.S. venture capital firms, particularly in software, artificial intelligence, and technology services. For an Indian entrepreneur who has secured an eligible amount of funding from qualified U.S. investors or grants, the IER offers a way to obtain work authorization for their own venture while their green card application remains pending, or as a standalone option if they don’t qualify for or want to pursue permanent residence immediately.

The IER also addresses a practical reality: many successful Indian entrepreneurs may not have accumulated the substantial personal capital required for an E-2 visa (if it were available) because their prior visas – such as H-1B or F-1 – restricted their ability to earn income or invest independently. For example, H-1B holders can only work for sponsoring employers, and similarly, F-1 students on OPT can’t have multiple income sources. However, they may have built valuable expertise, networks, and business concepts that attract investment from others. The IER’s emphasis on qualified investor backing rather than personal wealth makes it accessible to these entrepreneurs who have strong ideas and execution capabilities but limited personal assets.

In conclusion, IER represents a fundamental shift in how the United States welcomes global entrepreneurial talent. By focusing on market validation rather than personal wealth or passport privileges, the IER opens doors that traditional visa categories have kept closed. For entrepreneurs who have earned the confidence of experienced investors or government agencies, this pathway provides a bridge between your startup’s potential and your ability to build it on American soil.

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Disclaimer: This article provides general information and should not be construed as legal advice. For guidance tailored to your specific circumstances, please consult with a qualified immigration attorney.