Qualifying International Entrepreneurs Must Meet New Dollar Amounts Beginning October 2022

Thursday, September 16, 2021

New dollar eligibility criteria for investment amounts, qualifying investors, and re-parole considerations under the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) will take effect on October 1, 2022.

The Biden Administration relaunched the IER in May to grow the economy through job creation. The IER makes it possible for certain promising start-up founders and entrepreneurs to come to the United States through a discretionary parole program and begin growing their companies.

The IER has specific dollar eligibility criteria for investment amounts, qualifying investors, and re-parole considerations. Published in 2017, the IER stated that these amounts would be automatically adjusted every three years by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers and posted on the USCIS website. On September 13, 2021, the first adjustments were published in the Federal Register.

The new numbers, listed on the USCIS website, will take effect on October 1, 2022, and are as follows:

If relying on an investment from a qualifying investor, the amount is increasing from $250,000 to $264,147.
If relying on a government award or grant, the amount is increasing from $100,000 to $105,659.
The revenue amount for consideration of re-parole is increasing from $500,000 to $528,293.
Qualifying investors will need to show aggregate investments of no less than $633,592 (rather than $600,00) over five years. They also will need to show that at least two of those entities created five jobs or generated at least $528,293 (instead of $500,000) in revenue.

The increases are approximately 5.6 percent overall.