The majority of STEM graduate students in the US are foreign nationals.  Men and women who think big thoughts, come up with amazing innovations and face US immigration challenges if they want to stay in here and put their thoughts and innovations to work, especially if they are entrepreneurial in doing so.  One of the immigration challenges , the H-1B lottery , can be an obstacle, but inspired thinking can turn it into an opportunity.  Look what is happening in Massachusetts.  With the passage of its 2014 Economic Development Bill, the State of Massachusetts has funded a pilot program known as the Global Entrepreneur in Residence Program.   The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative will partner with universities to help foreign entrepreneurs with viable startups stay in the US.  The universities will vet the applicants and as “cap exempt” employers employ them part time to serve as entrepreneurs in residence.  This creative program will allow the foreign national to secure a cap exempt H-1B for the part-time work and a cap subject H-1B for additional part- or full-time work with the start up.   In the absence of immigration reform, some states and universities are beginning to step into the breach.  There are many details to be worked out with this 3 year pilot program, but it shows a way for cap-exempt entities to work together to remove one of the challenges faced by foreign national entrepreneurs.   To quote Jeff Bussgang, the Harvard Business School professor who conceptualized the program:  ”The current  system, where our top academic institutions train the best and the brightest around the world and then they’re told we don’t want them to stay, is absolutely insane.”