March 14, 2013

The Honorable President of America 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500

The Honorable John Boehner The Honorable Harry Reid Speaker of the Majority Leader House of Representatives United States Senate Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi The Honorable Mitch McConnell Democratic Leader Republican Leader House of Representatives United States Senate Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510

Dear President Obama, Speaker Boehner, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Pelosi:

One of the biggest economic challenges facing our nation is the need for more qualified, highly-skilled professionals, domestic and foreign, who can create jobs and immediately contribute to and improve our economy. As leaders of technology companies from around the country, we want to thank you for your sincere efforts in addressing high skilled immigration and we urge that you and your colleagues enact reform legislation this year.

As you know, the United States has a long history of welcoming talented, hard-working people to our shores. Immigrant entrepreneurs have gone on to found thousands of companies with household names like eBay, Google, PayPal and Yahoo! to name just a few. These companies provide jobs, drive economic growth and generate tax revenue at all levels of government.

Yet because our current immigration system is outdated and inefficient, many high-skilled immigrants who want to stay in America are forced to leave because they are unable to obtain permanent visas. Some do not bother to come in the first place. This is often due to visa shortages, long waits for green cards, and lack of mobility. We believe that numerical levels and categories for high-skilled nonimmigrant and immigrant visas should be responsive to market needs and, where appropriate, include mechanisms to fluctuate based on objective standards. In addition, spouses and children should not be counted against the cap of high-skilled immigrant visas. There should not be a marriage or family penalty.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are tens of thousands of unfilled jobs requiring highly skilled individuals. Five high-tech companies alone – IBM, Intel, , Oracle and

Qualcomm – have combined 10,000 openings in the United States. Each one of these jobs has the potential to create many others, directly and indirectly. Bipartisan legislation currently introduced in the Senate, such as The Immigration Innovation Act of 2013, and bi-partisan legislation focused on addressing the needs of entrepreneurs and start ups such as the Startup Visa Act and Startup Act 3.0, will encourage innovation here in the U.S. by allowing American companies and entrepreneurs to have access to the talented workers they need while simultaneously investing in STEM education here in the U.S. We know what it will take to keep America in a position of global leadership. We know that when America is leading, our economic growth follows to the benefit of our nation’s workforce.

We call on you to address the need for more qualified, highly-skilled professionals, domestic and foreign, and to enact immigration reform this year. We look forward to working with you and your colleagues in a bipartisan way as we move forward in our common interest.

Sincerely,

Jim Breyer KR Sridhar Partner Chief Executive Officer Accel Partners Bloom Energy

Khaled Naim Ralph Dangelmaier Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer President & Chief Executive Officer Addy Inc. BlueSnap

Eric Davidson David Hagan President President & Chief Executive Officer American Automation & Communications, Inc. Boingo Wireless

Bob Abernethy Bernard Yoo President Co-Founder American Standard Development Company Bombfell, Inc.

Pablo Diaz-Gutierrez John Chambers Chief Technology Officer Chief Executive Officer Appfluence LLC Cisco

Mike Splinter Edward Aten Chief Executive Officer Founder & Chief Executive Officer Applied Materials CopThis, Inc

Robert Nelsen Cherian Thomas Co-Founder & Managing Partner Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer ARCH Venture Partners Cucumbertown

Randall Stephenson Michael Baker Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer AT&T DataXu, Inc.

Michael Pope Don Means President Founder & Principal Audio Video Interiors, Inc. Digital Village

John Donahoe Robert Struble Chief Executive Officer President & Chief Executive Officer eBay, Inc. iBiquity Digital Corporation

Fabio Rosati James Hamilton President & Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Elance, Inc. Identity Ventures LLC

Timothy Healy Paul Otellini Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer EnerNOC, Inc. Intel

Kevin Hartz Adriane Brown Chief Executive Officer President & Chief Operating Officer Eventbrite Intellectual Ventures

John McAdam Peter Corbett President & Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer F5 Networks Inc. iStrategyLabs

Mark Zuckerberg Mitchell Gaynor Chief Executive Officer Executive Vice President, Secretary, & General Counsel Juniper Networks Randy Fry President Vitaly Golomb Fry's Electroinics, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Keen Systems Eric Schmidt Executive Chairman John Doerr Google Partner Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers David Inns Chief Executive Officer Shaun Cross GreatCall Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lee and Hayes Gagan Biyani Co-Founder Marty Beard Growth Hackers Conference Chief Executive Officer LiveOps, Inc Jindou Lww Chief Executive Officer Jake Sigal Happy Inspector Chief Executive Officer Livio Koichi Fujikawa Co-Founder John Hering Hapyrus Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lookout, Inc. Meg Whitman President & Chief Executive Officer Hewlett-Packard Company

Karl Sun Joshua Marti Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Lucid Software Inc. Point Inside Inc.

Matt McIlwain Maryse Thomas Managing Director Chief Executive Officer Madrona Venture Group Pokeware

Tom Savage Dr. Paul E. Jacobs Vice President, Global Legal Affairs & Chairman of the Board & Governmental Policy Chief Executive Officer Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. Qualcomm Incorporated

Sagar Mehta Timothy Lipton Chief Technology Officer Co-Founder/Chief Financial Officer Meet Mikey ReAllocate, Inc.

Bradford L. Smith Kim Folsom General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Chief Executive Officer Legal & Corporate Affairs Reel Qualified, Inc. Microsoft Corporation Steve Case Ted Smith Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Revolution LLC MIND Research Jean-Sebastien Boulanger Loyd Ivey Chief Technology Officer Chief Executive Officer Rewardli Inc. Mitek Electronics & Communications Group Michael Pope Bob Greifeld President Chief Executive Officer Safety Technologies, Inc. NASDAQ OMX Kate Mitchell Safra Catz Partner President & Chief Financial Officer Scale Venture Partners Oracle Greg Becker Joseph Taylor President & Chief Executive Officer Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Silicon Valley Bank Panasonic Corporation of North America Benoit Passot Alan Wells Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer SimPolaris Pocket Labs, Inc Brent Frei Paul Lambert Chairman President Smartsheet Point B Management Consulting

Jim Weldon Steven Tiffen Chief Executive Officer President & Chief Executive Officer Solar Junction The Tiffen Company

Michael Mayernick Jonathan Swanson Co-Founder Co-Founder & President Spinnakr Thumbtack

Daniel Pidgeon Michael Green Chairman Chief Executive Officer Starpower TipTopMed

Ron Conway Ariel Camus Partner Chief Executive Officer SV Angels TouristEye

Aart de Geus David Rusenko Chairman & Co-Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Synopsys, Inc. Weebly

Mary Hale Anush Ramani Chief Financial Officer Chief Technology Officer Taos Mountain, Inc. Xola Inc.

Scott Allison James Zimmerman Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Teamly Inc Xola.com, Stanford Medical Center

Doug Young Marissa Mayer Chief Operating Officer Chief Executive Officer The ASCII Group Yahoo!

Mark Pincus Chief Executive Officer

Jonathan Zuck Todd Thibodeaux President Chief Executive Officer Association for Competitive Technology CompTIA

Jim Wunderman Paige Rasid President & Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer Bay Area Council Connecticut Technology Council

Robert Holleyman Gary Shapiro President & Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer & President BSA | The Software Alliance Consumer Electronics Association

Fred Hoch Kathie Shields Chief Executive Officer Executive Director Technology Association Rhode Island Tech Collective

Dean Garfield Brian Toohey President & Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Information Technology Industry Council Semiconductor Industry Association

Tom Hopcroft Carl Guardino Chief Executive Officer President & Chief Executive Officer Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council Silicon Valley Leadership Group

Mark Heesen Heather Kenyon President Chief Executive Officer National Venture Capital Association Tampa Bay Technology Forum

Fred Kocher Shawn Osborne President President & Chief Executive Officer New Hampshire High Tech Council TechAmerica

Maxine Ballen Rey Ramsey Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer New Jersey Technology Association TechNet

Erik K. Grummelmann, Ph.D. Tino Mantella Executive Director President New York Technology Council Technology Association of Georgia

Brooks Raiford Skip Newberry Chief Executive Officer President North Carolina Technology Association Technology Association of Oregon

Peter Craig Michael Beckerman Chairman President & Chief Executive Officer Orange County Technology Alliance The Internet Association

Lew McMurran Vice President of Government & External Affairs Washington Technology Industry Association