U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on December 14, 2017 that it will begin steps to implement the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER).

The IER was published during the Obama Administration with an effective date of July 17, 2017. However, the rule did not take effect as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the final rule on July 11, 2017; thereby delaying the effective date until March 14, 2018.

A December 1, 2017 ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated USCIS's final rule to delay the effective date. This decision is a result of litigation filed on September 19, 2017 which challenged the delay.

The IER was published to provide international entrepreneurs an avenue to apply for parole, enter the United States, and use American investments to establish and grow start-up businesses. The Parole is a discretionary grant made by the Secretary of Homeland Security and granted only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The Rule established new criteria for the adjudication of parole applications from certain international entrepreneurs to provide them with temporary permission to come to the United States. This Rule does not offer a path to U.S. citizenship.

Further guidance from USCIS regarding the International Entrepreneur Parole is available here.

While DHS complies with the court order of December 1, 2017 to implement the IER parole program, DHS is also in the final stages of publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to remove the IER.