Hrishikesh Amravatkar and his team hope to do just this by “disrupting the mobile knowledge sharing market”. Originally from Pune, India, Hrishikesh immigrated to the U.S. on a F1 Student Visa in 2005 to pursue his Masters in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

“Attending USC was one of the best experiences of my life,” said Hrishikesh. “I was introduced to a vast pool of knowledge, talent, and ecosystem that I believe makes the U.S. an innovation hub.“

Shortly after graduating, he landed a job at eBay Inc. and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Hrishikesh now works for a top tech company as a lead engineer. However, he dreams of one day running his own company.

“Since I was young, I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he said. “I wanted to innovate and help the community. It is not just about making money; instead it is about making the world a better place.”

Hrishikesh is no stranger to the startup process. In 2003, while still in India, he helped create websites for undergraduate students to post blogs, news, and articles related to the university. Then, in 2007 while at USC, Hrishikesh noticed a problem when it came to students sharing books. His solution? He created OnStretch.com, an free online marketplace for students to sell and buy their used books. The site maintained 33 exclusive university partnerships.

Two-years after joining the U.S. workforce, Hrishikesh felt that he was ready to finally start on his own venture.

“I wanted to kick start a company in 2009, but my attorneys recommended otherwise,” he said. “The H1B visa, which I currently hold, has strict limitations. In fact, you could get into trouble if you decided to start a company while holding an H1B visa. You may not be able to file for a Green Card in future either. It struck me that as an immigrant, I could not create jobs.

Still, Hrishikesh made sure that his entrepreneurial enthusiasm continued. He started developing a free location-based dating iPhone application, which was launched across 85 countries. Called, myDate, the app currently boasts approximately 100,000 plus users – a feat accomplished without any investment or the typical infrastructure support.

With this experience, Hrishikesh’s wants nothing more than to venture into the startup world. His idea is to create a mobile application that can help people who have critical needs at a certain time.

“This is an untapped opportunity to utilize a billion-dollar market,” he said. “Unfortunately, I am at a standstill due to current immigration rules.

Hrishikesh also mentioned, “I have worked for several great companies in Silicon Valley and have expanded my experience. But, the long and tedious immigration process has made me rethink my decision to come to U.S. and be a tech entrepreneur. It will take at least five more years before I get a Green Card.”

Hrishikesh’s situation has his hands tied. He cannot pursue his dream until he has been naturalized; and, the wait time and the cost of doing so continue to grow. As the clock continues to tick, Hrishikesh and his team are losing valuable development time. For them, Morgan Stanley’s 2015 projections may come and go before they even have the chance to participate.

“I’ve always believed that the U.S. was the place for innovation and talent,” Hrishikesh said. “People say the U.S. is a land of immigrants, but the reality is completely different. With my drive and talent, I could definitely create jobs and generate revenues for the U.S economy. Unfortunately, I can’t sit and wait forever. Many of my friends have moved back to their home countries and have started their own successful ventures. I feel that I am sitting on a goldmine but lack the basic support.”

Alexander, now a successful founder of over ten online marketplaces, first visited the U.S. at the age of 19. Like many of the other stories featured on the site, Alexander could see the potential and opportunity the U.S. had to offer for a young entrepreneur like himself. At first, Alex worked entry positions at Starbucks and McDonald’s to make ends meet. He started studying Management Information Science at the Florida International University, but dropped out after two years to start his first company.

He managed to bootstrap his tech startup despite bouncing between positions and visas (tourist and student). Within the first three years, the company was profitable and employed seven people. Then, in 2001 with the aftermath of 9/11, Alex was forced to return to Colombia.

“The switching-visas game was over,” said Alexander. “I had to return to Colombia when most visas to return were being denied. I was afraid I would never be able to come back.”

Fortunately, for Alexander, he had met Tania a few months earlier. Little did he realize that it was a match made in entrepreneur heaven.

“My first real ‘angel’ investor was Tania,” wrote Alexander in his post. “She didn’t invest money, though. She invested something far more valuable: She married me so that I could stay in the United States and continue growing my startup.”

Now, the two are co-founders in Torrenegra Labs. Most notably, their product, Voicebunny, connects people with great voices to people who need them. Inspired by Tania, who was an aspiring voice artist at the time, VoiceBunny enables crowdsourcing of voiceovers in minutes. As they note on their web site, “it’s crowdvoicing!” Today, the company employs over 20 people with over half based in the U.S.

“The startup environment in the U.S. provides the support, the infrastructure to execute on ideas,” said Alexander. “Any where else, this would be difficult. It’s easy to set up a business and to find investment. The current laws don’t punish startups, and risk and failure is socially accepted here. The U.S. is the only place in the world with such a rich mix of elements.”

In his piece, Alexander notes the need to push for policy such as StartUp Visa. He wrote:

“Startup Visa is trying to rekindle the spirit of entrepreneurship that America was founded upon, but it has some glaring imperfections. For one, it doesn’t have clear provisions for bootstrapping-but-profitable entrepreneurs like me — yet we’re vital to the entrepreneurship ecosystem, especially in the tech space.”

Welcome to Rishi Bhilawadikar’s reality.

A 29 year-old interaction designer in the Bay Area, Rishi’s story may at first seem unassuming. His should be a pretty straightforward case. A graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington Campus, Rishi holds a master’s degree and entered the U.S. under a F-1 student visa. After graduating, Rishi joined the U.S. workforce and has a H-1B work visa. He is a highly skilled worker with over five years of professional experience and a steady job.

But, this is where it gets tricky. Rishi has attempted to submit his immigration application four times. Each time, his efforts were thwarted due to circumstances outside of his control. The 2008 recession, which led to budget cuts; a change of rules from the Department of labor; layoffs at his workplace; and a less than transparent employer have all contributed to Rishi’s complicated situation.

“For a over two years, my employer, a very large American company with international presence, continued to keep me under the impression that my immigration application would be filed under the advanced category (general wait time 5-7 years),” said Rishi. “But when the rubber hit the road, they rescinded on their word and instead will file it in the general category (general wait time 15-20 years).”

And, while the company would eventually file his paperwork, wait times just to enter the immigration queue can easily take close to 14-16 months. Rishi only has 20 months left on his current visa.

“I spent a lot of my pending visa time with this one company; without my immigration application going anywhere,” said Rishi. “With very little time left on my visa, other employers refused to even conduct interviews. When I did land two offers, my reason for choosing between one offer over the other wasn’t based on job content or career prospects; but, rather on which one would be willing to start the immigration application immediately. After passing several rounds of interviews, this frequently becomes a bottleneck in closing out offers. It requires extremely hard negotiation with separate efforts and language needed to convince the hiring manager, the HR and the lawyers. Making a successful pitch for your case is rare, and it feels like it all boils down to sheer luck.”

Rishi thus must stay in his job for an unknown number of years instead of pursuing his own real interests. He has spent nearly a decade curating his network in the Bay area. It is where his professional and personal life reside. It is where he wants to continue to grow.

“The immigration process creates a lot of uncertainty when it comes to life decisions such as family, marriage, changing jobs, purchasing property or starting one’s own business,” said Rishi. “Since there are no guarantees built into the system of maintaining a legal status- in fact quite the opposite; there’s absolutely no incentive to take on other challenges. Just fulfilling my potential is a more pertinent question than fulfilling my ambitions.”

Rishi has hopes of one day starting his own venture, which would leverage his unique blend of design, technology and film experience.

“The way I look at it is that these are my best, potentially most productive years of my life where I have the enthusiasm and energy to try and build something new,” said Rishi. “It is extremely deflating and demoralizing to fight each day just to get myself in a line that will place me into a long, unknown period of limbo.”

Since the age of 10, Zainab wanted to live and study in the U.S. The America she knew of was a land that encouraged freedom and provided opportunity to anyone no matter their circumstance.

“I grew up in the Middle East and from that point of view my dream life was to pursue the freedom of higher education and the freedom to live my life my way,” said Zainab.  “Because, in America, success is not based on privilege.”

Zainab found her path to the U.S. via the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin where she pursued her Master’s in Business Administration. She was one of two international students who received sponsorship under an F1 student visa in 2008. In 2010, Zainab graduated from UT only to face a depressed economy where jobs were scarce and recruiters looked past international students.

“During this time, I married and changed my status to a dependent H4 Visa,” said Zainab. “With the economy tanked and the ‘no-work’ provision of my visa, I decided to take control of my fate in my hands and started working on my startup TappedIn.”

TappedIn is a recommendation engine that helps business executives and professionals find the people who can help them wherever they go. The platform helps save time and reduce social noise by connecting users with the people who can solve their professional and personal needs anytime, anywhere.

“My cofounder and I were tired of wasting our time at the events we attended. We would meet random people, have many wasteful conversations and end up having a stack of business cards on our desks the next day with no time or motivation to follow up,” explained Zainab.
“Meeting people through serendipity works only when one has a lot of time and a lot of interactions. But life is short; so why wait for serendipity?”

TappedIn is working to disrupt the $500 billion global networking industry. In 18 months of its existence, TappedIn has seen plenty of growth. They recently closed their first round of funding (undisclosed amount) and now employ six people; none of which include Zainab. TappedIn’s services have been employed by some of the most marquee events in Washington DC including TEDX PennQuarter, Disruptathon, Fosterly, TEDCO Expo and CADRE. In addition TappedIn is the exclusive social discovery partner of over 3500 TEDx events around the world.

Due to her current immigration status, Zainab is neither unable to apply for full time employment with a U.S. company nor claim any of her contributions to the development of TappedIn.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Zainab. “I see the support, I see the opportunity. And, when I attend events and meet people, never am I questioned about my immigration status. So, it’s difficult for me to understand why it has to be so complicated.”

Her husband, who works for an established company in Washington, D.C., is the sole provider. He also doubles as the CTO for TappedIn.

“It would be a dream for both of us to be able to work on TappedIn full time. We’d be able to accelerate our growth 10 fold. But as a family, we cannot afford for him to lose his status at his full time job,” said Zainab. “In the meantime, our company suffers from having only a part-time CTO and a COO who can’t get out there as much as she would like.”

Luckily for the business, Zainab’s other co-founder, CEO and “face” of the company is a U.S. citizen giving them the advantage of closing on funding – unlike some of the  other stories featured on the site.

Zainab and her husband continue to push through the immigration process in hopes of one day being naturalized. She is a strong advocate for immigrant entrepreneurship opportunity flying across the country to tell her story.

“I came to the U.S. because I knew I could have a better life here. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world that has the resources, the support structure, the infrastructure, the knowledge and the energy needed to maintain a successful startup community like the U.S.”

Every once and awhile, an entrepreneur is faced with a decision to take a leap of blind faith. In the case of Robert Mao, his move not only meant a departure from his home continent but to take a chance in creating his own business.

“I liked the open and innovative environment in  the U.S.,” said Robert.  “I really hate the fact that in China  everything Internet business has to been censored by the Great Fire Wall.  I love the open and free competition environment of the U.S.”

A serial entrepreneur, Robert is the founder of three companies in China. Lodesoft, one of his three, was a pioneer in VoIP software solutions in 2000. In 2003, he founded UUZone, one of the first social networking sites in China. The success story of Robert and his company were widely covered by major news media in China, and UUZone was named as one of the top web 2.0 sites in the country in 2006.  However, after his third company’s “unsuccessful” exit, Robert left China and joined Microsoft Research  working first in Dublin, Ireland, and then in Redmond, Washington.

But, his natural gravitation towards entrepreneurism could not be stifled. When not at work, he moonlights on LOCQL and Discoverful spending his spare time on both ventures. LOCQL is a location based question and answer service that allow user to seek answers to any places in world. Discoverful is a mobile visual discovery app to help users get travel inspirations through other’s eyes.

“I love travel and moved from my home to several countries from Asia to Europe and now the U.S.,” said Robert.  “I found finding places to visit, no matter whether you’re traveling or you’re at home, is actually challenging. There is either too much information (e.g. a popular city like NYC), which causes information overload or not enough (e.g. a nice little town in Europe or China).  That’s the motivation of co-founding Discoverful, we are trying to build a world places database with pictures and locations.”

LOCQL and Discoverful have both received copious news coverage in TechCrunch, USA Today, GigaOm, etc. He and his co-founder won the first place in the 2012 SXSW Application Hackathon, and Discoverful won second place in the Where 2.0 Conference’s Startup Showcase. They are also one of the winners of the Kiip Build Fund.

“We know our products have the potential to disrupt today’s online travel sector,” said Robert. “And, it looked like we were on the right track to success.”

However, Robert, like many others featured on this site, is faces a significant hurdle in trying to successfully navigate the U.S. immigration process. This roadblock prevents him from fully dedicating his time and effort to his ventures. Instead, Robert must stay at his current job or risk having his whole family deported back to China.

“Current visa restrictions have slowed down the business and development a lot causing a deadlock with several potential venture funding opportunities,” said Robert. “Potential investors need founders to work full-time, and at the current stage without external investors, we are unable to obtain the H1B visa to allow me to work full-time on Discoverful.”

The company continues to function but is struggling to expand and to generate revenue without the right support. Initially, Robert tried for an H1b visa under his own startup; however, after consulting with several law firms, he realized it would be nearly impossible without external funding and sponsorship.

Not being discouraged, Robert received legal advice that encouraged him to apply for the Extraordinary Ability Visa (EB-1A). The EB-1A traditionally targets scholars and researchers from other countries. Robert’s lawyer recognized that given his previous research experience, his over 20 published scholarly works and his occasional conference presentations, Robert could arguably qualify for this visa. Recently, Robert received a request for evidence (RFE) from USCIS after applying for the EB-1A. The request requires a submission of his contributions on the startup. By doing so, Robert would be caught in a complicated catch-22 trying to justify his contributions while complying to his current sponsored work visa.

“I can foresee that this will be very tough and challenge,” said Robert. “I realize that the EB-1A is designed mostly for scholars and researchers – not entrepreneur friendly. But, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will work. If I can get EB-1 visa, I can fully dedicate myself to Discoverful.  This is why, I firmly believe that the US should enact something like Startup Visa, so that entrepreneurs like myself can stay and focus on innovation and growing businesses.”

Meet, Nancy T. Nguyen, a first generation American trilingual entrepreneur and author. Her portfolio includes an impressive lot of accolades including: the title of “Ms. Corporate America 2011”, Founder of Sweet T Salon and Sweet T Luxury, author of The Networking Diary, and a MBA recipient from DePaul’s Graduate School of Business. Her achievements exemplify the incredible potential of a population which, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), noted as striking for its rapid generational transformation.

According to MPI, some 11.3 million people ages 16 to 26 – or one in every four young adults in the United States – were members of the first and second generations. It’s a diverse population noted for its bilingualism, high enrollment rates in both high school and college, and its financial earning capabilities.

Born in a crowded refugee camp in the Philippines, Nancy’s parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1982 in hopes to provide her with a better opportunity in life.

“When I was born, my parents were caught between one life and another,” recalled Nancy. “My father used to tell me that he’d rather ‘die at sea than live under communism’”. “When we finally reached U.S. shores (North Carolina), we had nothing. My parents worked hard – around the clock – barely having the chance to see me grow-up. They faced discrimination and had to overcome the language barrier, but they succeeded nonetheless.”

It is in seeing and learning from her parents struggles that Nancy gained the respect, knowledge, skill set and confidence to succeed in her own goals. Now, her infectious entrepreneurial spirit has translated in the creation of several successful ventures.

Over the past three years, Nancy has developed and launched the Sweet T luxury brand which celebrates the fashion, beauty, diversity and sophistication of the modern South. Her Sweet T Salon and Sweet T southern-inspired jewelry has caught the attention of big name clientele from around the world. In addition, Nancy’s book, The Networking Diary, serves as a reference on how people from a span of different generations, ages and cultures have successfully worked the room.

If history (and stats) have taught us anything, the U.S. will continue to be a nation of immigrants. The key to success is in part by providing an infrastructure that supports and cultivates the economic opportunities for this population. Moreover, it is in retaining the intellect, drive and entrepreneurship of this sector that will undoubtedly lead to America’s future successes.

Stories of immigrant integration, like Nancy’s, should serve as a testament to not just the potential of this demographic, but as evidence that our nation is indeed a land where dreams can come true.

“My parents used to explain to me how lucky we are to be in the U.S.,” said Nancy. “Because here, we have the freedom and resources available to be our own bosses and to create jobs.”

A product of The Graziadio School of Business, Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, Ankush received his MBA in International Business and is just one of many successful immigrant entrepreneurs that the U.S. has failed to retain.

“Immigration to the US was/is not something that I’ve tried yet,” said Ankush. “However, it would help me grow my business at a much faster pace if there is some visa that would allow me to create a proper business base in the U.S. It would allow me to stay longer in the U.S., hire people, seek funding and open physical locations.”

Currently, he lives in Chandigarh, India and regularly visits the U.S. on a B1/B2 business visa. His two sites, www.spicylegs.com and www.partybell.com, feature products that are sourced 100% from the U.S., directly from the manufacturers or from distributors. Approximately, 95% of his customers are in the U.S. with the remainder of the orders coming from Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan.

“I come from a family of entrepreneurs. Both my father and my grandfather were successful entrepreneurs,” said Ankush. “And, in general, I’m very attracted towards technology; especially information technology which gives me a platform to express my creativity. The motivation behind starting these e-commerce ventures was the opportunity I saw & the fact that this opportunity was within my ‘grasp’. I could see that I can do much better than the competition.”

Ankush received his Bachelors of Engineering from the Punjab Engineering College and lived in the U.S. from 2001 to 2004 on a F1 student visa. He returned to India in 2004 on expiry of his student visa and joined the family business of edible oil manufacturing.

“The success that I experienced during the short stint that I had running an e-commerce store in the US motivated me to ultimately start my own e-commerce company,” said Ankush. “I would work on our family business during the day and then would work on my e-commerce business during nights or during my free time. I looked at it like an ‘experimental’ business that I’ll fully adopt once it reached a critical level.”

The initial phase of setting up his business was a very slow process having to leave the U.S. and to complete all of the business setup tasks remotely via the internet or phone. His funds were very limited; and, for the first two years all the tasks – technical, programming, designing, marketing & everything else – were completed by Ankush. In 2007, he saw sales of just $3,000 (USD) but by 2008 he saw sales jump to $36,000.

“We are now growing at a hefty pace, and I will achieve a million dollar sales this year. But, this could have come much earlier had I stayed longer in the U.S.,” commented Ankush.

Francisco Saez is referring to Nixter.com, a nightlife social network for the iPhone that allows its users to purchase tickets, see upcoming events and join the guest lists to get free access to the best parties. It also allows nightclub owners and promoters to target and track campaigns and their events through their cloud based platform “NightlifeGraph”.

A former nightclub promoter, Francisco first came up with the idea in 2009. He and his brother observed how the industry worked and came up with ways to better service club owners and their patrons. For over a year, they worked on a Customer Loyalty Card for party people and after pivoting their business model and approach to users, they decided to go global trying to find new ways to scale their product. In 2011,  the two brothers met their other two co-founders who have helped them build Nixter. All of them decided to drop out from University to achieve their goals in Silicon Valley.

The four were awarded and sponsored by the Chilean government with an office space in Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California, for three months. Now, they are fully incorporated and are ready to start their first funding round.

“We’re looking to revolutionize the nightlife industry – an industry that moves over $20 billion (USD) a year. And, the entrepreneurial mindset in our country is not as it is in the U.S.,” said Francisco. “We’re getting better, but is still very slow to create a company, to be supported by other people and to raise money. We came to the U.S. to develop a world class product.”

However, despite the success Francisco and the rest of the Nixter team have experienced, they are now reaching the end of their initial visa terms. The team must now commute between Chile and the U.S.

“We’re supposed to start a round of Angel investment in San Francisco, but now we have to travel back and forth because of the B1/B2 Visa.” said Francisco. “We’re afraid that we may be denied at customs and not allowed to return. Then, what?”

Their largest hurdle is their inability to apply for a working visa.

“We cannot apply for a working visa, and we cannot hire ourselves in the company we actually own,” said Francisco.  “Now we’re speaking with different lawyers to learn about our options. We’re concerned that given the volatility and pace of the industry, commuting between Chile and the U.S. could cause irreversible damage. Our company will probably die and our three years of working our asses off will be for nothing.”

The Nixter story, while a success on certain levels, exposes the gaps many immigrant entrepreneurs experience as they struggle to succeed here. Francisco and team have the potential to inject into the American economy new jobs and revenue. It will be at America’s loss, if we are unable to help them pursue their dream.

Born in Malaysia, Cheryl immigrated to the U.S. for her undergraduate studies in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering at Cornell University, on a full scholarship.

“I came to the U.S. to study engineering since some of the best technical colleges are here,” Cheryl said. “I also loved that the U.S. provided an opportunity for any person of any gender or ethnicity to excel themselves and succeed, given their hard work and perseverance.”

Subsequently, she received another full scholarship to finish her Master’s in Engineering Management a few years later allowing her to remain in the U.S.

“I’d encourage immigrants to pursue a higher degree because it’s easier to get a company to sponsor an H1-B visa with it. My Master’s was only a one-year program, so it didn’t have to take a lot of time, plus it was fully paid for,” she added. “I guess I consider myself incredibly lucky to have worked very hard and received two full scholarships.”

After receiving her Master’s, Cheryl worked for three years at an American corporation before receiving her green card.

“Obviously, getting through the visa issue was a hurdle, and I couldn’t really pursue what I wanted off the bat (start a company) until I received my green card. Some companies are better at sponsoring visas and will pay to expedite your documents, pay for your lawyer fees, etc., but not all,” she said. “It’s definitely important to get referrals for a good and reliable immigration attorney to help you through the process. There’s a ton of paperwork, interviews, biometrics, and patient waiting involved; but it will all pay out when you finally get a green card.”

In April 2010, Cheryl conceived the idea of her venture, CityPockets – a web service and mobile app which brings all of your social shopping deals and group discounts into one place. She worked her full-time corporate job and then would shift to her “passion project” after close of business, often working into the early morning of the next day. It was not until she received her green card that Cheryl felt that the time was right to move on and concentrate fully on CityPockets. One year later, she and her co-founder raised more than $750K through investment from venture capital firms and angel investors.

Under the same company, Cheryl is now working on a new product, Reclip.It, which she created to disrupt and innovate on the outdated coupon space. Reclip.It is a design-driven site that prioritizes the user experience of discovering deals & coupons that are relevant to an individual.

Her company continues to grow with 30% month-over-month in terms of registered users and currently employs four full-time employees.

Cheryl’s journey should  be the experience of most immigrant entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, as she points out, due to a very complex, expensive and lengthy immigration process, even the most fortunate immigrant entrepreneurs get lost in the shuffle.

“I knew that this country offered me the kind of diversity in culture and career opportunities that my home country wouldn’t be able to,” said Cheryl. “I hope to see change for smarter immigration laws that can ensure America continues to attract the talent, ideas and energy we need.”

“I decided to immigrate in order to get a better education,” said Maxim. “I received a full scholarship to study and to play Division I varsity tennis at Alcorn State University in Mississippi. I also knew that by moving to America, I would have the opportunity to start my own business.”

In 2008, he transferred to Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated in 2010 with a 3.95 GPA and a bachelors degree in Economics. During his senior year in college, he started his first venture called Brainshake, a special kind of milkshake that improved memory and helped people focus better. After graduating from college, I wasn’t legally allowed to continue working on it because of my F1 visa status.

Finally in 2011, Maxim received his H1B visa and has been working full-time at Haver Analytics as an Economic Database Manager. When not at his nine to five, Maxim works on his latest venture, Mixely.

Mixely is an app that helps you discover new people and makes it easy for you to meet them for a casual conversation. The service is focused on facilitating more real meeting and less meaningless message exchanges.

“I’ve been always creating new things and always wanted to work for myself. My major motivation for creating Mixely was my passion for meeting new people,” said Maxim. “I noticed that in the past 40 years, people went from installing computers in their homes to connecting these computers through the Internet to finally connecting with their friends through social networks. I believe the next big step is to connect individuals who don’t know one another, but are a perfect fit for each other.”

Maxim continues to work full-time but longs to dedicate his focus and energy to his own business. However, until he receives his green card which will allow him to raise money and employ himself, Maxim remains in entrepreneur purgatory.