Here's the immigration firm that is helping "extraordinary" AI engineers qualify for an H-1B alternative visa

"I was working with this horrible law firm who really didn't get my story," Wehden said. "I felt crushed."

After switching to a different attorney, she tried again. This time, a month later, her O-1 visa application was successful. She immediately applied for a green card, which granted her permanent residency status and allowed her to live and work indefinitely in the US.

"When I got my green card, I decided to quit my job and spend a year working on things I really cared about, and one of those was immigration," Wehden said. And thus, Plymouth was born.

Plymouth is an immigration services firm targeting the tech industry. The company started in 2022 as an education project. Wehden shared resources to help others like her navigate the bureaucratic process. Since then, Plymouth has become a valued resource for immigrant tech workers.

Immigrants drive US innovation

Some of the biggest tech companies are founded or run by immigrants, said Wehden. Take Microsoft, Nvidia, and Google, to name a few. According to a 2023 American Immigration Council report, immigrants or children of immigrants founded 224 companies on the Fortune 500 list, accounting for 44.8% of the total.

Still, immigrating to the US is no easy task even for those with highly sought-after technical skills. For one, there is simply more demand than available spots. The number of employment-based visas granted a year hasn't changed since 1990. The US issues just 140,000 employment-based visas and 85,000 H-1B visas a year.

These limits make hiring AI engineers and researchers during the generative AI boom especially hard for tech companies.

To make matters worse, navigating the US immigration process is bureaucratic and confusing. "Employers typically work with immigration providers to support their employees," said Wehden, but this support is limited to a handful of firms and leaves workers highly dependent on their employers.

Immigrants who are sponsored by an employer are locked into their jobs, and if they are laid off, they have to find a new job within 60 days or leave the country. All these factors and low approval rates make immigrating a daunting task, even for highly skilled workers.

Visas for the "extraordinary"

All these difficulties convinced Wehden that there must be a better alternative to the H1-B visa, the most common path for immigrants working in the tech sector. "You just don't know whether you're going to get accepted," Wehden said. "You don't have any agency around whether you're going to get the visa or not."

Plymouth is tailored to founders, researchers, and engineers, many of whom have unique backgrounds. They may not be good fits for the H-1B, which requires a college degree, but may, in fact, be eligible for the O-1 visas.

The O-1 is less well-known than the H1-B. Even for those who are aware of it, it can seem out of reach, as it is intended for individuals with "extraordinary ability."

"I thought that O-1 was for people like Justin Bieber or people who were super famous and extremely talented," said Wehden.

Plymouth's first step is to educate applicants about their options. The O-1 visa has eight criteria; applicants must meet three out of eight to qualify. "A lot of it is a storytelling exercise about yourself to meet the criteria of the O-1," Wehden said.

Gabriel Petersson, a Midjourney engineer and high school dropout, initially considered an H-1B visa before realizing it required a college degree. However, after a free 10-minute consultation with Plymouth, Petersson realized he may be eligible for an O-1 visa.

Plymouth's software collects evidence of applicants' accomplishments and assembles the petition step-by-step for the applicants, making the process more approachable. For instance, the company worked with Petersson to to identify examples of his past work, such as his Stack Overflow answers with millions of impressions, to help him make the case for an O-1 visa.

"They asked me all the right questions and explored what paths could be possible," Petersson said. "[They] brought up things we could submit that I would never think of that could count as one of the O1 criteria."

Although Plymouth is not a law firm, it partners with a network of attorneys and case managers to assist applicants through the process. The company also has a network of industry experts who can provide reference letters, a necessary step of the O-1 process.

Plymouth delivers visa petitions in six weeks, while traditional providers can take up to four months, said Wehden. The company has received 115 approvals out of 116 total cases. While 85% of the company's petitions have been for O-1 visas thus far, it also supports green card applications. Plymouth has worked with fast-growing AI companies like Midjourney, LangChain, Replit, and Together AI.

Plymouth is not the only company leveraging tech to increase efficiency in the immigration process. Earlier this year, Plymouth cofounder Minn Kim left Plymouth to start Lighthouse, which also supports immigration processes for tech workers. Other digital immigration services platforms include Boundless and SimpleCitizen, which focus on the green card process. Visas AI and Visalaw AI are both building AI tools for immigration lawyers, while LegalPad helps startups apply for visas on behalf of their employees.

Plymouth has raised an undisclosed amount of grant funding from the Institute for Progress, Schmidt Futures, Emergent Ventures, and the Talent Mobility Fund. The company has fourteen employees.

Long-term, Wehden strives to build "Plymouth as the ramp to the American dream..we're laser-focused on supporting people's immigration journey, but over time, we hope to expand to providing additional services that support their journeys in America."