Want to create jobs? Import entrepreneurs

Many of America's biggest tech employers were launched by immigrants. So why do we make it so hard for foreign entrepreneurs to do business here?

(CNNMoney.com) -- A five-foot robot sits in Jon Wheatley's chair during most U.S. investor presentations, listening, speaking, and watching the meeting as Wheatley maneuvers it from a laptop in London. The shtick draws attention to Wheatley and his company, social media Web site DailyBooth.com, but the robot (provided by one of his investors) serves a purpose: Wheatley cannot set foot in the United States.

The 22-year-old Brit's deportation came from an innocent mistake. When immigration officials pulled him aside during a three-month trip to Silicon Valley last summer, he mentioned he might talk to an attorney about trying to get a visa to stay and build his company there.

Officials deported him, quashing his immigration plans. Wheatley now works nights to match U.S. business hours while his American cofounder, Ryan Amos, runs the Mountain View, Calif., company. "I'm completely bummed out about it," says Wheatley. "It's something we really shouldn't have to be dealing with."

Stories abound of smart, motivated foreigners eager to live here, start a business and create jobs amid the nation's worst economic recession in decades. But no visa exists specifically for entrepreneurs.

Their contributions could be huge: a quarter of American tech companies -- including Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) and Intel (INTL) -- have foreign-born founders. In Silicon Valley, half of all tech company founders hail from outside America, according to a study by Vivek Wadhwa, a Harvard researcher and Duke engineering professor. These entrepreneurs typically either came here as children or waited years to get their green cards, Wadhwa says. Today, that backlogged process may take decades. It's a massive reverse brain drain, as skilled foreigners go elsewhere.