Tech entrepreneurs nationwide support an effort by freshman Democratic U.S. Representative Jared Polis of Boulder, Colorado, to make it easier for foreign founders of investor-backed startups to win visas and stay in the United States.

It’s seen as a way to keep technology that is started in the United States by foreign-born entrepreneurs from going overseas.

Polis will introduce legislation next year that he hopes will stop the trend of immigrants starting companies in the United States that attract investors, but then the companies close or move abroad because the founder can’t legally stay here.

“I think Colorado is well-positioned to attract a lot of these companies,” Polis said. “Hopefully some of them will be able to stay here and raise capital and create new jobs.”

The United States has visas designed for foreigners investing in U.S. businesses, for foreign workers at U.S. companies, and for workers at established foreign companies transferred to this country. But there’s no visa for a foreign-born entrepreneur who has investor backing to start a U.S. company.

Polis, a serial dotcom entrepreneur prior to getting into politics, said he’s heard of real estate developers and medical-device inventors in the Denver metro area whose projects have suffered because the founder lacks the proper visa.

The problems particularly affect Internet-based startups, where a single founder or two can prove a concept and get commitments from outside investors that would let them start creating jobs.

Polis’ plan would reform the EB-5 visa, which is meant for investors who put at least $1 million into a U.S. company ($500,000 if the company is in designated areas with high unemployment). About 80 percent of EB-5s go unclaimed under the current rules geared for foreign investors, Polis said.

He proposes making some of those visas available to foreign-born entrepreneurs whose companies would produce at least five jobs and have attracted $1 million worth of investment. To prevent visa fraud, the investors would have to be venture capital firms or individuals with at least $10 million invested in other businesses.

Brad Feld, managing director at Foundry Group, a Boulder-based venture capital firm, is a leading national voice on tech blogs trying rally support for founder’s visas.

For 25 years, Feld has helped start hundreds of companies as a technology entrepreneur and investor. Several, including some started by students at U.S. colleges, wanted to locate in the United States, but instead formed overseas due to a lack of visa options for the founders, he said.

“We essentially have this phenomenal culture for startup companies, then we don’t let them stay here and the jobs go somewhere else,” Feld said. “I think it’s a tragic situation for the economy.”

He encouraged the launch of StartupVisa.com on September 1, a website advocating the visa reform and seeking $50 donations. The website tallied nearly 1,400 messages—98 percent supporting founder’s visas—sent to members of Congress in the first six days of the campaign.

Feld is a co-founder of TechStars, a 3-year-old startup incubator in Boulder and Boston that recruits founders to a three-month business-building boot camp.