That's exactly my point. Give everybody a visa, but reward them with GC only when they build a successful business. If they can't - they go home when the visa expires.

But that's one of the big problems. USCIS has almost no ability to "send people home" when their visa expires. The fact is, if you enter the US (legally or not, it's pretty much impossible to make you leave).

That's why you see tourist visas denied for people who are coming from developed countries and are visiting relatives. The immigration official knows that one he lets you in, he has to count on the person's goodwill that they'll leave.

Can you explain a bit more on why it is hard to deport people? The way I understood it the way illegal immigrants live in the country is because they either use fake SSNs or no SSNs, no paper trails of any kind. I would imagine that it would be very hard to live like that unless you are truly desperate.

You are right, it's not an easy life, but keep in mind there are an estimate 12 million illegal immigrants in the US at this point. I would assume most of them are working cash-only jobs or have fake documents that nobody checks.

Could you live in the US illegally and be working at a Fortune 500 company? Probably not. Could you come to the US and work at a mom and pop grocery store? Probably.

And the USCIS has a minuscule enforcement arm. They prioritize criminals for deportation. If you're a law abiding immigrant (excluding the immigration violation), you are very low priority for deportation.

> Could you live in the US illegally and be working at a Fortune 500 company? Probably not. Could you come to the US and work at a mom and pop grocery store? Probably.

I would think that this in itself coupled with the high time investment costs of applying for such a startup visa (business plan, prototype etc) would self-select a section of the population who will either succeed or self deport (instead of screwing up their career and future potential by living illegally).

It would be great to be able to identify the features necessary for successful entrepreneurship. However, defining "tenacity" and "scrappiness" (and other latent variables) in a binary fashion acceptable to a bureaucrat are difficult. In its absence, use something like the YC approach (interview by experts) to determine the success of an idea? If 1 out of every 100 people succeed, you have 1000 jobs for U.S. citizens.