Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry:

About a year ago, Paul Graham of Y Combinator put out an idea for a Startup Visa that would allow foreign entrepreneurs to set up in the United States if they could raise enough money from institutional investors such as renowned business angels and VC firms…

Pretty much all the digerati are in love with the idea and believe it will finally allow immigrants to start companies in the US…

For one, getting the visa depends too much on investors. Investors already have too much power in the investor-entrepreneur relationship. If this act is passed, fundraising won’t just affect an entrepreneur’s company, but his or her life. You have to raise that round, or you’ll get deported!…

Another big problem with the Startup Visa Act is that it increases, rather than decreases, risk for the entrepreneurs. Launching a startup by definition means taking on a lot of risk: financial, reputational, you name it. The Startup Visa would increase risk for the entrepreneur by making the stakes so much bigger, by making literally everything depend on success — and not business success, but success how Congress defines it.

Via Tim Lee.