Tech group urges passage of immigration legislation

A leading tech group on Wednesday urged lawmakers to adopt legislation that would allow immigrants to remain in the United States if they proved to be skillful entrepreneurs.

That bill -- the StartUp Visa Act of 2010, introduced this week -- would enable foreign workers in the United States to obtain two-year visas if they "can demonstrate that a qualified U.S. investor is willing to dedicate a significant sum -- a minimum of $250,000 -- to the immigrant's startup venue," explained the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) in a letter of support on Wednesday. Ultimately, those workers would have to maintain a businesses that created at least five new American jobs in its early years, ITIC emphasized.