Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 22, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 11 Only citizens should obtain diversity certifications Obtaining a diverse business certification from the state government can open a company up to additional sources of revenues, although obtaining the certification from the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Officer is an arduous and months-long process. Businesses at least 51% owned or dominantly controlled by a member of a qualifying minority group, woman, or military veteran can obtain the certification, although they must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. The Boston-based Asian Business Empowerment Council recommended dropping the citizenship/residency requirement, in order to lower the barrier to entry, as part of a survey released in June showing Asian-owned businesses, particularly those operated by immigrants, are struggling more than the average business in the current economy. When polled online, nearly 90% of WBJ readers should the citizenship/residency requirement should stay in place. Should Massachusetts remove the citizenship requirement for companies to receive diverse business certifications? Yes, lifting the requirement would mean more businesses would have a better chance at financially succeeding. requirement for SDO certification. e suggestion came from a comment a business owner made in a focus group, said Anne Kiyono Calef, lead author of the report. e owner said though they had been in the U.S. for more than 12 years and paying taxes for more than 10, they still didn't have a permanent residency card – better known as a green card – because of long wait times, and couldn't apply for SDO certification. Because the U.S. has a 7% per-country caps on green cards, those who have emigrated from countries with high numbers of green card applicants, such as China, India, and Mexico, have pro- longed wait times, said Kiyono Calef. e SDO's push to remove the diver- sity certification citizenship requirement was prompted by a similar comment McAvoy's office received from an electri- cian business in 2023. e business was properly licensed, paying taxes, and em- ployed several staff, but because of the citizenship requirements, the business was not eligible for certification. "is led to a longer conversation on how to serve these businesses that meet all other requirements to do business in the commonwealth but are held back by the citizenship [rule]," McAvoy said. SDO certifications not only open up revenue streams for qualifying business- es, but they help non-certified business- es meet requirements for public projects. For example, the City of Worcester requires public development projects or private developments receiving a tax break to have a percentage of subcon- tractors be SDO-certified businesses. When multiple projects are going on at the same time, meeting these re- quirements is difficult, as the number of SDO-certified subcontractors is limited. e contractor behind the Polar Park baseball stadium had to pay a $2-million fine to the city and state governments for failing to meet these requirements and filing misleading reports. Onerous process to certification When Mittal first looked into SDO certification, she ran into technical issues since her business' corporation is currently registered in Florida. Secondly, she's still trying to figure out in concrete terms in which ways obtaining the certi- fication would support her business. Mittal, who is the chair of the Pro- fessional and Entrepreneurial Network at the India Society of Worcester, based in Shrewsbury, had attended the SDO's mandatory two-hour pre-certification workshop and the certification work- shop ISW PEN hosted with representa- tives from the SDO and U.S. Small Busi- ness Administration. Still, Mittal does not have clear answers to her questions. Accessing information was another major obstacle for Lilian Chukwurah, attorney and owner of Lilly Legal, an immigration law firm in Worcester who immigrated in 2002 from Nigeria. "It was hard to get the information, knowing where to go. What you're sup- posed to do was not readily available. I tell people all the time, I'm a lawyer and some of this stuff is still not intuitive at all," said Chukwurah. She did her own research to obtain ac- curate information for moving through the application process as she wasn't aware of a contact within the SDO to help point her in the right direction. ough Chukwurah has started the application process again as Worcester has made information about the diversi- ty certification process available through its Diverse Business Certification Grant Program, she had originally discontin- ued her pursuit. "It just felt like it wasn't really geared towards me, even though it's supposed to be. Because as a minority-owned business, if I am having such a hard time finding the information that's supposed- ly meant for me, sometimes I just don't want to participate," she said. Yes, it would expand the number of businesses in the SDO database, helping identify diverse businesses for public projects. No, a business shouldn't benefit from state-run programs or projects if its owner isn't a citizen or permanent resident. No, adding businesses owned by non-citizens to the SDO database would crowd out those that underwent the more difficult process. 8% 5% 68% 19% Julia Becker Collins, chief operating officer of Northborough marketing agency Vision Advertising, dealt with the lack of readily available support early on in her application process as a woman-owned business. Navigating the levels of bureau- cracy within the application process proved taxing as Becker Collins struggled to make contact with someone at the SDO to offer support. "A lot of sys- tems that need to interact with each other, they don't always play nice together. You can't always get the answer you're looking for. You're dealing with automated systems. You can't always get a person on the phone," she said. ough she hadn't kept a running fig- ure of how many hours she logged when working her way through the applica- tion, from finding documentation from 20 years prior, to holding out on wait times, to figuring out how to submit documents properly, Becker Collins estimated she spent hundreds of hours on her certification, a feat simply not accessible for all small business owners and employees. "We're a small, small company. So if somebody's going to have to spend, you know, five hours a week, 10 hours a week, or whatever it is, who is that going to be? It's going to be me," she said. Boosting businesses Amending the citizenship require- ment would bolster the success of small businesses, said Murray from the Worcester chamber. It takes years to go through the per- manent residency/citizenship process- es, and in the meantime, people have already started growing their businesses. ose efforts shouldn't be stunted by onerous requirements, Murray said. In response to possible naysayers who believe businesses shouldn't benefit from state-run programs if its owner isn't a citizen, Chukwurah said those business- es are not trying to cheat the system. ese businesses are paying taxes. ey're paying rent. If they're retail, they're paying sales taxes, she said. "ey are not just trying to get money from the city government or the state government. ey are trying to run a business that, at the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. ey are running a business that provides a benefit to the city, that provides a benefit to the state. ey are not looking for a handout," said Chukwurah. Affording qualifying enterprises access to more funds and opportunities serves to support the communities those businesses are working for, Mittal said. "When a person is starting a business, they are creating something new. ey're not just doing it for themselves. ey are looking at the good of the society as a whole. ey are contributing to the economy," Mittal said. "You're creating employment. You're creating solutions for the society as a whole." Years before citizenship Immigrants can spend years as lawful residents of the United States before be- coming residents. These are the countries with the largest number of new citizens in fiscal 2023, and the median years spent as a lawful permanent resident before being naturalized. Country Years Mexico 10.4 Canada 10.4 Dominican Republic 9.5 El Salvador 9.4 South Korea 8.7 Haiti 8.1 Cuba 7.9 China 7.2 Jamaica 7.0 Colombia 7.0 Philippines 6.7 Vietnam 6.6 Bangladesh 6.0 Iran 6.0 India 5.9 Brazil 5.9 Pakistan 5.9 Nigeria 5.6 Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Lilian Chukwurah, attorney and owner of Lilly Legal Anne Kiyono Calef, author for Asian Business Empowerment Council W

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