An Immigrant Tech Entrepreneur Helps Accelerate US Access To Foreign Talent Tech| Innovation

I need an experienced programmer I can afford right now

Everyone agrees that finding experienced programmers and engineers is a challenge.

Even though U.S. educators have been banging the drum for computer and STEM education for 30 years, they have only in the past decade made strides to integrate this learning throughout the education lifecycle systemically. The wheels turn slowly when you're projecting what a 6-year-old today will need to be able to do 15 years from now.

And when you are hiring today for a job you sold last quarter or a technology project that was funded for go live by the end of the year, educational forecasts and punditry offer you no respite. You need talent now, and often the experienced and ready talent is as some people say “caged.”

That's a pretty loaded term. There may be local technology talent available to you, but the cost of that talent, due in large part to the cost of the U.S. higher education system and the expectations those institutions set for the prevailing wage may be out of alignment with an employer's hiring budget.

In contrast, foreign talent may be experienced, ready, and affordable but out of reach because they don't have the necessary visas to help you now. The immigration system is increasingly deliberating and certainly not fast. Some demonize the process because it doesn't satisfy the instant gratification culture we've become.

The immigration process is costly and confusing for talent that wants to work

One entrepreneur understands the frustrations, delays, and personal and financial costs all too well. His name is Liran Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld's own experience inspired him to be a founding partner of Recast.tech and the founder and CEO of PassRight.

When Rosenfeld came to the U.S. in 2016, he had a few choices available to him to stay and work. He needed to get married or go to school because he didn't qualify for other types of visas. Or so he thought. He visited one attorney after the next, all of whom told him different things and presented hugely different cost equations for keeping him here. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services process is complex, as are the ways to navigate it.

One attorney advised Rosenfeld to go dircectly for a Green Card. $15,000 and many months later, it appeared his visa, despite guarantees in writing from his attorney, was not going to be approved. Coasting on the last few months of a tourist visa, now with a complete distrust of the immigration attorneys he'd spoken to, Rosenfeld dug in, worked on his EB1 visa by himself and paid another attorney to submit the paperwork.

Far beyond the economic cost of this process is the emotional one. In the 7 or 8 months Rosenfeld was waiting, he didn't have credit, he couldn't rent an apartment, he couldn't buy a car, and he couldn't enter or exit the U.S. He missed his cousin's wedding. There is a real human and emotional cost to bureaucracy.

PassRight creates a path for other entrepreneurs and enterprising tech workers

Two things make the immigration system confusing, inefficient and costly.

The first of these inherent programs is that the process, for the most part, is not digitized. Manual forms and paperwork, letters of reference and copies of documentation must be compiled to complete an immigration filing. According to Rosenfeld, for an 01 Visa, what some refer to as a “genius visa,” an application can be 200 to 600 pages.

The second challenge, and this is where experienced attorneys come into play, securing an 01 visa requires a strategy. The applicant must prove they qualify and meet specific legal criteria. There must be specific statements by the sponsoring employer, and the applicant must correctly compile 200 to 600 pages of documentation in support of that strategy.

The PassRight team has developed AI that helps project the applicant's likelihood of success based on the content in the application. There is a chat feature inside the software that connects the person with immigration attorneys at partner McGettrick Law PLLC, to help answer accurately and on strategy.

What's the benefit of this automated system? Rather than operating rudderlessly, at the mercy of the system, the individual can complete 80% of the process by themselves and avoid the 100 to 500 emails it ordinarily takes to extract the proper information. This can streamline the process down from a 3 to 6-months to a 15-day process. In a few cases, PassRight has completed the process in 5 days.

The visa system is ripe for innovation

The immigration system provides much opportunity for innovation because there are 37 types of visas people consider when coming to America.

Beyond the 01 visa, PassRight is at work streamlining the next path of entry for many. These paths include the marriage-based Green Card, the B1 and B2 Visa extensions, the Green Card Renewal and the Citizenship application.

There is a lot of press focused on abolishing the immigration system or subverting it. While pundits and some policymakers focus on dividing us, people like Rosenfeld are hard at work on streamlining and improving the system for the mutual benefit of employers and immigrant talent.

Doing things right and better has always—and will always—be fertile ground for entrepreneurs.

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The U.S. workforce is continuously in flux, and American businesses struggle to match their talent needs with the available labor pool.

Educators and policymakers study advancing markets and project the types of jobs that will be most in demand. Others focus on retraining the existing labor pool to give them high-demand skills and greater upward mobility. All markets, industries, and communities are dynamic which is great for workers who want broader opportunity, but not so great for employers that need talent now.

The continued integration of technology into every aspect of our lives have placed technologists, programmers and engineers in high demand. Some, like TechCrunch in their article “Unlocking Trapped Engineers,” estimate that there will be a shortage of 1 million programmers by 2020. Others, like Stanford University, have taken a more sophisticated view of the challenges associated with developing a multi-generational technology labor force that is sustainable.

I need an experienced programmer I can afford right now

Everyone agrees that finding experienced programmers and engineers is a challenge.

Even though U.S. educators have been banging the drum for computer and STEM education for 30 years, they have only in the past decade made strides to integrate this learning throughout the education lifecycle systemically. The wheels turn slowly when you're projecting what a 6-year-old today will need to be able to do 15 years from now.

And when you are hiring today for a job you sold last quarter or a technology project that was funded for go live by the end of the year, educational forecasts and punditry offer you no respite. You need talent now, and often the experienced and ready talent is as some people say “caged.”

That's a pretty loaded term. There may be local technology talent available to you, but the cost of that talent, due in large part to the cost of the U.S. higher education system and the expectations those institutions set for the prevailing wage may be out of alignment with an employer's hiring budget.

In contrast, foreign talent may be experienced, ready, and affordable but out of reach because they don't have the necessary visas to help you now. The immigration system is increasingly deliberating and certainly not fast. Some demonize the process because it doesn't satisfy the instant gratification culture we've become.

The immigration process is costly and confusing for talent that wants to work

One entrepreneur understands the frustrations, delays, and personal and financial costs all too well. His name is Liran Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld's own experience inspired him to be a founding partner of Recast.tech and the founder and CEO of PassRight.

When Rosenfeld came to the U.S. in 2016, he had a few choices available to him to stay and work. He needed to get married or go to school because he didn't qualify for other types of visas. Or so he thought. He visited one attorney after the next, all of whom told him different things and presented hugely different cost equations for keeping him here. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services process is complex, as are the ways to navigate it.

One attorney advised Rosenfeld to go dircectly for a Green Card. $15,000 and many months later, it appeared his visa, despite guarantees in writing from his attorney, was not going to be approved. Coasting on the last few months of a tourist visa, now with a complete distrust of the immigration attorneys he'd spoken to, Rosenfeld dug in, worked on his EB1 visa by himself and paid another attorney to submit the paperwork.

Far beyond the economic cost of this process is the emotional one. In the 7 or 8 months Rosenfeld was waiting, he didn't have credit, he couldn't rent an apartment, he couldn't buy a car, and he couldn't enter or exit the U.S. He missed his cousin's wedding. There is a real human and emotional cost to bureaucracy.

PassRight creates a path for other entrepreneurs and enterprising tech workers

Two things make the immigration system confusing, inefficient and costly.

The first of these inherent programs is that the process, for the most part, is not digitized. Manual forms and paperwork, letters of reference and copies of documentation must be compiled to complete an immigration filing. According to Rosenfeld, for an 01 Visa, what some refer to as a “genius visa,” an application can be 200 to 600 pages.

The second challenge, and this is where experienced attorneys come into play, securing an 01 visa requires a strategy. The applicant must prove they qualify and meet specific legal criteria. There must be specific statements by the sponsoring employer, and the applicant must correctly compile 200 to 600 pages of documentation in support of that strategy.

The PassRight team has developed AI that helps project the applicant's likelihood of success based on the content in the application. There is a chat feature inside the software that connects the person with immigration attorneys at partner McGettrick Law PLLC, to help answer accurately and on strategy.

What's the benefit of this automated system? Rather than operating rudderlessly, at the mercy of the system, the individual can complete 80% of the process by themselves and avoid the 100 to 500 emails it ordinarily takes to extract the proper information. This can streamline the process down from a 3 to 6-months to a 15-day process. In a few cases, PassRight has completed the process in 5 days.

The visa system is ripe for innovation

The immigration system provides much opportunity for innovation because there are 37 types of visas people consider when coming to America.

Beyond the 01 visa, PassRight is at work streamlining the next path of entry for many. These paths include the marriage-based Green Card, the B1 and B2 Visa extensions, the Green Card Renewal and the Citizenship application.

There is a lot of press focused on abolishing the immigration system or subverting it. While pundits and some policymakers focus on dividing us, people like Rosenfeld are hard at work on streamlining and improving the system for the mutual benefit of employers and immigrant talent.

Doing things right and better has always—and will always—be fertile ground for entrepreneurs.