Alma

Your partner on the path.
A reimagined immigration legal services, designed for speed, excellence, and care

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

2025 Alma Wrapped is here!!

While everyone's sharing their Spotify Wrapped, we thought why not create our own version?

Here's what made 2025 incredible for us:

The numbers that matter:

Clients grew 8x from 100 to 850+

15 different visa categories handled (O1A being the top)

~99% approval rate across visa types

Launched our enterprise grade immigration platform

Team grew from 10 to 35 across legal, engineering, and sales

2025 taught us that when you solve a real problem the right way, growth follows naturally.

Here's to helping even more professionals navigate immigration in 2026 without the headaches.

p.s. If you're a researcher, engineer, or founder exploring work visa options like O-1, EB-1A, or EB-2 NIW, feel free to reach out to @AlmaImmigration. We'll give you an honest assessment of whats possible

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

This Thanksgiving, I'm reflecting on an incredible year at @AlmaImmigration.

Our team grew from 15 to 35 people who wake up every day thinking about how to make the immigration experience better.

We moved from a shared office space into our own office

We went from helping fewer than 100 clients to over 800 professionals who trusted us with their immigration journeys.

Launched our new website and our B2B product that companies are already using to streamline their immigration processes.

Had our first team offsite in Santa Cruz where we actually got everyone away from their laptops for 48 hours.

The small stuff matters too: 1000+ tong sui in office, 25+ team lunches, and probably 100,000 pictures together.

But what I'm most grateful for are the clients who took a chance on us.

Immigration is deeply personal. When someone trusts you with their visa case, they're trusting you with their career, their family's future, their ability to stay in the country.

To our clients: thank you for letting us be part of your story.

To my team: thank you for caring as much as you do.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

The State Department just dropped new visa wait times data last week. Here's what happening:

Shanghai work visa wait times (H, L, O, P, Q) nearly tripled from 0.5 months to 3 months since October.

Meanwhile, New Delhi had some good news:

Student visas (F, M, J) dropped from 2 months to just 0.5 months

B-1/B-2 interview-required visas cut in half from 6.5 to 3.5 months

Chennai's B-1/B-2 wait times went from 5 months to "N/A."

Canada continues to have some of the longest work visa waits: Ottawa and Quebec at 4.5 months, Vancouver at 4 months.

Toronto still leads with the longest B-1/B-2 waits at 16.5 months.

Few things to keep in mind:

Your appointment calendar might not even show up until you submit your DS-160 and pay fees

Some posts limit how many times you can reschedule, so plan carefully

Check appointment availability frequently after your initial scheduling

Some embassies waive in-person interviews for eligible applicants, but these aren't reflected in the published wait times

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

Holiday Travel Tips for Foreign Nationals: What to Keep in Mind Before You Fly

With Thanksgiving and the December holidays approaching, many foreign nationals are planning international travel. A few small steps now can make reentry much smoother and prevent avoidable delays.

Avoid nonrefundable travel plans until you check with your employer and immigration counsel. Your attorney should advise on the immigration impact of travel (including any pending cases), travel advisories, and what documents to carry.

Check your passport expiration date - If your passport expires before your petition expiration date, your I-94 will be shortened to match the passport expiration.

Review visa and entry requirements for every country on your itinerary - If you are transiting through a third country, confirm whether a visa or transit permit is required.

Double-check the expiration date of your U.S. visa stamp. - If your visa is expired—or will expire before your return—you may need to renew it abroad at a U.S. consulate. Allow time for potential appointment delays or administrative processing.

Keep your immigration documents accessible - Carry physical or electronic copies of your I-94, approval notices, and any dependent documents.

U.S. immigration officials may request these, and CBP may inspect your electronic devices

Be aware of social media and personal device screening - CBP and other U.S. immigration officials may review publicly available social media content and may inspect personal devices (laptops, phones, etc.) as part of screening and admissibility processes.

Be aware of dependent and household considerations - A change to your status does not automatically update your dependents’ status. Ensure everyone’s documents are aligned before traveling.

Avoid work-related changes while abroad - Changes to job title, location, or duties can require an amendment to your petition. Confirm before traveling to avoid issues at the border.

IMPORTANT: Always retrieve and review your most recent I-94 from the CBP website after every entry, and share it with your immigration attorney. Confirm that the classification and expiration date match what you expect.

p.s. If you're a researcher, engineer, or founder exploring work visa options like O-1, EB-1A, or EB-2 NIW, feel free to reach out to @AlmaImmigration . We'll give you an honest assessment of whats possible.

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

Our engineering team has two PRs to review in today’s standup

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

Got this email this week from an Indian postdoctoral researcher we worked with.
"While most law firms were asking me to proceed with EB2 NIW, Alma took the bold initiative for me."

Here's what actually happened:

This researcher had consulted with multiple firms. All of them recommended EB-2 NIW (you get your I-140 approved but the wait times are insanely long).

When we reviewed his profile, we saw something different.

Yes, EB-1A has a higher bar. But his research impact was there. His citations were strong. His peer review record was solid.

We saw the EB-1A potential that others missed. And I'm really glad it worked out.

Sometimes the bold move is the right move. We'll soon do a case study too!

If you're a researcher, engineer, or founder wondering about your options, feel free to reach out to @AlmaImmigration. We'll give you an honest assessment of what's possible.

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

We just had our best month ever at @AlmaImmigration !

Feb 2025: 100 clients
June 2025: 300 clients
August 2025: 500 clients
October 2025: 750 clients

The growth came from three things (and these are extremely simple yet difficult to implement):

We ship cases in 2 weeks. Understanding and implementing urgency matters more than most people realize.

Transparency over mystique. Every client gets direct access to their attorney. No black box. Immigration is scary enough without wondering whats happening with your case.

Systems over heroics. We built processes that scale without compromising quality. Each case follows the same rigorous checklist whether its our 1st client or our 750th.

The crazy part? We're still maintaining our 99%+ approval rate across all visa categories.

Most people think you have to choose between growth and quality.

We've proven you can have both.

p.s. if you're exploring work visas and want an honest assessment of your profile, share your details on our website!

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

This weekend the entire @AlmaImmigration team was in the bay area for our offsite in Santa Cruz!

Over the last year, we've grown really fast all because of the execution of this team. And honestly, the team deserved a good break!

we've accomplished a lot in the last one year:

800+ customers

95+ NPS

99%+ approval rates across visa types

Raised Seed funding of $5.5M

Moved into our new office in Palo Alto

But here's what I'm most proud of...

It's not the numbers (though they're great).

It's that we're actually solving the problem I set out to fix when I started this company.

Remember, I was that person who got wrong advice from an immigration lawyer I found on Google.

Now we have hundreds of professionals who don't have to go through that same nightmare.

The approval rates speak for themselves, but the real wins are in the DMs and emails from customers who tell us we helped them work on their startups or finally get the certainty they needed.

Building a company is hard. Building one in immigration law is even harder because you're dealing with people's lives and futures.

Having a team that gets that and executes with both speed and care makes all the difference.

Back to building now!

P.S. If you’re exploring work visa options like O-1, EB-1, or H-1B, @AlmaImmigration can assess your profile and guide you through the process. Feel free to share your details on our website!

[Julien Rosilio @julienverse]

Had my first meeting today with @AlmaImmigration

Gonna post here progress on the O1 steps

Next year -> 🇺🇸

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

Last year, @AlmaImmigration was 3 people. Just me and my co-founders (Assel and Shuo) working out of coffee shops and a shared office space.

We've grown 10X since then (and hiring) and everyone is in the Bay Area together for the first time.

Watching everyone meet in person after months of Zoom calls has been incredible.

There's something different about being in the same room when you're building something meaningful together.

The energy is completely different.

Ideas flow faster. Decisions happen quicker. And honestly we're all having way more fun than I expected.

I love the random hallway conversations, the impromptu whiteboard sessions, and even just grabbing lunch together.

Remote work has its place (it might be unavoidable), but there's still magic in being in the same room when you're trying to build something from scratch.

Our office feels alive this week in a way that Slack never could.

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

O-1 visa approved for YC founder! 🇺🇸

Pankaj is from India, did his undergrad at IIT Kharagpur, and worked at Uber as an SDE before starting his own company.

A couple months back, he and his co-founder Tejas got accepted into Y Combinator’s Fall 2025 batch and like many immigrant founders, they faced an incredibly tight timeline to figure out immigration.

Every other firm they spoke to said it couldn’t be done.
We decided to take on the challenge.

First call: August 21
Visa approved: September 26

That’s five weeks from start to finish for an O-1 approval.

Now, they’re officially building Nivara (YC F25) — Nivara gives engineering and finance teams full transparency into AI model and agent usage. It tracks every LLM and agent call, across users, sessions, and workflows, to reveal real spend insights

Huge congratulations to Pankaj and Tejas 🎉

We’re proud Alma could play a small part in this journey. Time to build!

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

The November 2025 Visa Bulletin is out. Zero movement across ALL employment-based categories.

USCIS confirmed we're using the Dates for Filing chart this month.

Here's what we're looking at:

EB-1 India: April 15, 2023
EB-1 China: May 15, 2023
EB-1 Rest of World: Current

EB-2 India: December 1, 2013
EB-2 China: December 1, 2021
EB-2 Rest of World: July 15, 2024

EB-3 India: August 15, 2014
EB-3 China: January 1, 2022
EB-3 Rest of World: July 1, 2023

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

So happy for Felipe, founder of Taxflow, Inc on his O-1 visa approval 🇺🇸

Moving countries to build your company is never easy — it takes courage, conviction, and a lot of paperwork. We're thrilled Alma could be part of this journey.

Taxflow, Inc is building AI tax preparation agents for U.S. tax firms. Their AI agent automates data collection, client communications, transaction categorization and other end to-end tax preparation tasks.

The hard work is just beginning, but now he can focus on what matters most: building his company.

P.S. If you’re exploring work visa options like O-1, EB-1, or H-1B, @AlmaImmigration can assess your profile and guide you through the process.

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

We just proved this YC founder wrong.

Last month, we worked with a YC founder who got into the F25 batch (which started in October). Every other law firm had rejected the case.

After evaluating his profile, we decided to take on the challenge. He had his first call with us on Aug 21. And got approved on Sept 26.

That's 5 weeks to get an O-1 visa approved. Start to finish.

Copying the exact email from Sept 26:

"Every other immigration team we spoke to either didn't want to look at our profile because we were so early, or wouldn't commit to the incredibly short timeline we were on."

This happens more than you'd think. A lot of times immigrant founders are on other statuses like H-1B, F-1 etc.

YC founders get accepted with tight timelines. Usually with only 2 months to figure out immigration while they're already building.

We specialize in exactly these situations. We file in 2 weeks.

If you're a founder dealing with tight immigration timelines, reach out. Alma can assess your profile and guide you through the process.

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

Huge win for H-4 holders (spouses of H-1B holders) today.

The Supreme Court declined to hear Save Jobs USA v. DHS, which means the H-4 EAD program survives another major challenge.

For those who don't know what this means:

If your spouse is on H-1B status AND has either an approved I-140 or an approved AC-21 106(a) extension, you can continue to apply for and renew your work authorization in the US.

The lawsuit has been going on since 2015. Save Jobs USA argued that DHS didn't have authority to grant these work permits and that it would hurt US workers.

This decision comes on the heels of broader challenges to the H-1B program itself.

When you force one spouse to give up their entire career because of visa restrictions, you're not just hurting that individual.

You're hurting the family's economic stability and the spouse's mental health.

That's not a choice anyone should have to make.

This decision provides some much needed stability for thousands of families.

With the recent news, many H-1B families are stressed. But for now, its one less thing these families have to worry about.

source - https://t.co/EI1GerR31Q

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

O-1 Visa approved for Animator 🇺🇸

Yes, we also work with artists, musicians, and creators on their O-1s.

For those who don’t know, the O-1B visa is designed for individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary ability in the arts — whether that’s film, design, animation, or performance.

@pietroschito , born and raised in Milan, Italy, discovered his fascination with animation at just seven years old after meeting a few Disney animators. That spark led him to create stop-motion films with his parents’ camcorder — a passion that never left.

In his twenties, he worked in television production before moving to Mexico and then the United States, where he completed the Screenwriting Program at the New York Film Academy’s Universal Studios branch.

We’re honoured to have worked with Pietro on his O-1 visa journey.

P.S. If you’re exploring work visa options like O-1, EB-1, or H-1B, @AlmaImmigration can assess your profile and guide you through the process.

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

Today marks 2 years of building @AlmaImmigration!!

What started 2 years back as a personal problem has become a mission. A team of 30+, 700+ clients (individuals and businesses), and many many changed lives.

Along the way we also raised $5.5M from top VCs and are building a category defining product for global mobility teams.

wanted to take this moment to share how I got here.

After Harvard, I was supposed to be a "big law" attorney. That was the dream. Then a law firm screwed up my immigration paperwork.

I was stuck in immigration limbo for 1.5 years. It was really frustrating. I've never felt that helpless.

That frustrating period gave me the best motivation. Instead of giving up, I chose to fix the system. Along with my incredible cofounders Assel and Shuo, we started Alma.

We started by creating software for immigration law firms, but last year we pivoted into a tech-enabled immigration law firm.

Hired the best attorneys in the industry (and the best engineers)!

Now we help founders, researchers, engineers, and businesses navigate the U.S. immigration system especially for visas/green cards like O-1, EB-1A, EB-2 NIW, H-1B, and more.

But what I'm most proud of isn't the metrics. It's the lives we've changed.

I am deeply grateful to the amazing team we've built. A company is nothing without its team.

And to all our clients who’ve placed their trust in us - Thank you. Immigration is high-stakes and deeply personal, and I’m proud that we’ve been able to put our best work into helping you succeed in your journeys.

[Soumitra Sharma @soumitra_sharma]

Great turnout yesterday at the SF Tech Week event on “Fundraising in the Valley for US-India Founders”.

Thanks so much Alex (@Mvpventures), @ashishkakran (@Sierra_Ventures) and @kpowerinfinity (@ElevCap) for rocking the seed panel.

And much gratitude to Deepak Prasad (@QualcommVenture) and Vikram Venkat (@CotaCapital) for unpacking the nuances of Series A fundraising.

The best part was how all panelists contextualized the discussions from a cross-border founder’s perspective.

@Aryanpareeek (@AlmaImmigration) and @shivd6 (CorridorX) - appreciate the partnership & all the hard work to make it happen!

[Aizada Marat @Aizada]

Just reviewed the latest USCIS data on O-1 visas and here's what the numbers actually tell us:

Approval rates dropped slightly from 94.6% to 93.8% last quarter.

Across nearly 23.5K cases over three quarters, we're still seeing a 94.2% average approval rate. And that'd been stable.

About 19% of cases are getting RFEs, but here's the part most people miss: 71% of those RFE cases still get approved.

What matters is the bigger picture: O-1s remain one of the most predictable immigration pathways for qualified applicants.

Strong cases with thorough evidence packages are still getting through at very high rates.

We at @AlmaImmigration have still maintained a 99%+ approval rate so far by focusing on comprehensive case preparation upfront.

p.s. If you're exploring work visa options like O-1, EB-1, H-1B, EB-2 NIW etc. Alma can assess your profile and guide you through the process. Feel free to share your details on our website!

[capi @capihouse_]

Big shoutout to our early supporters.

@EveryBanking @AlmaImmigration and @PulseNoLimits

Enjoy their perks at https://t.co/2PwzpRgnyR