In just over one year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) innovative Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) initiative has produced real benefits that will strengthen agency policies and practices relating to job-creating immigrant entrepreneurs who help advance American economic growth and to attract and retain startup enterprises that promote innovation and create jobs.

Launched at a February 2012 summit in Silicon Valley, the EIR initiative brought together startup experts and USCIS immigration experts to work collaboratively to streamline pathways fora range of existing visa categories often used by entrepreneurs. Three aims were key to the overall initiative: producing clear public materials to help entrepreneurs understand relevant visa categories; equipping USCIS staff with the right tools to adjudicate cases in today’s complex business environment; and streamlining USCIS policies to better reflect the realities faced by foreign entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

USCIS today released a summary of the EIR team’s work. Some of the highlights over the past year include:

• Nearly 30,000 visits to Entrepreneur Pathways, which provides entrepreneurs seeking to start a business in the United States an intuitive way to navigate the immigration process; Approximately 500 participants across the United States in USCIS’s entrepreneur-focused engagements;

• More than 400 USCIS employment-based immigration officers trained on startup businesses and the environment for early-stage innovation; and

• More than 100 USCIS officers receiving additional specialized training to handle entrepreneur and startup cases.