January 30, 2014
Thank You For Your Support During Our First Year!
 

Weinstock Immigration Lawyers is celebrating its first year anniversary! We are very grateful and thankful to all our clients and colleagues for their support and positive feedback of our firm. We returned after the winter holidays with full steam ahead to get ready to file all of the H-1B visas by April. Now is the time to start the H-1B process for all employers and employees trying to get under the H-1B cap starting in October 2015. The H-1B visa is one of the main work visas that U.S. companies use to bring professional workers to work for them. 
A Story of Success: Campus Bubble

 

Campus Bubble is a company that develops private social networks for universities. The benefits they bring to the schools are increasing students engagement by providing them with an interactive, mobile communication solution and helping educators make more informed decisions by collecting active student engagement data and communicating more effectively.

The 3 co-founders of Campus Bubble wrote the business plan together at an entrepreneurship class at Emory University. They received a $150,000 grant from Emory, the first and only of its kind. They found Serge, a developer from Ukraine and hired him from abroad as a contractor initially. They built a relationship through Skype.  The company brought him on full time while he was living in Ukraine as he was producing phenomenally. They needed to bring him over to the U.S. and physically join the team, so they hired our firm to help with filing for his H-1B visa.

When Serge was in Ukraine, it was impossible for him to be in the management role and working with a 6-hour time difference was hard, because he was managing eastern European developers as well as working with the U.S. team. In addition, he was stressed daily because of riots and civil strife in the Ukraine, due to Russia's invasion, threats to his family, and worry that he would get drafted to the army. Serge got his H-1B visa, and he and his wife were extremely grateful for getting them out of these threats.

With Serge here, they have daily meetings and have agile development team which he now manages. Having Serge here helps Campus Bubble to prioritize features better, schedule the development cycle, and work closely in the next room, on the same time zone. Since then, Campus Bubble released their first product version, closed on $525,000 seed round and is executing on go to market strategy, launching a premium model and working with 100 schools to expedite the introduction to the administration.

Campus Bubble and CEO Spencer Barkoff are looking to grow, specifically by introductions to educational institutions, campus life and student affairs teams. They can also help companies develop websites, software and apps of commercial value. If you know anyone who can help them, please make an introduction to help these young entrepreneurs succeed. 


Plan and Do, Don't Procastinate

 

In order to have a successful H-1B visa application, both employers and employees need to plan in advance and start action. The H-1B visas have an annual cap and more people apply than there are visas that the government is authorized to issue. So you have to be ready and get in on time as USCIS conducts a lottery which randomly selects the applications they will adjudicate. Had Campus Bubble procrastinated, they would not have been able to have a cohesive U.S. development team and their investment round would have been jeopardized. Serge would have been living with daily threats. Contact us now if you may need to file for an H-1B visa, or know of someone who may have the need, in order not to miss out!