On 26 March 2003, a leading banking software product company, received some surprise visitors in its Dutch office. So did the company's four Dutch banking clients. The visitors were from the Department of Social Security, Netherlands, to investigate the violation of immigration laws by the Indian software company's 12 employees. The authorities asked the Indian company's employees to leave the Netherlands pronto. In addition the Dutch government had also sent an application to the UK to extradite the CEO of the company. He was arrested but later released on bail. Though the company maintained that the executives were abroad with all the necessary paper work, the fact was that it had missed out on a few immigration processes.

A few days post the incident, the company has signed up with INSZoom, a California headquartered immigration software company to facilitate in-house processing of immigration and to ensure compliance to rules and regulations. Founded in 1999 by Umesh Vaidyamath, INSZoom is the world's largest immigration software company providing solutions for domestic and global immigration lawyers based in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the UK, corporations, universities, healthcare organizations, and non-profit groups in 68 countries around the world.

Hundreds of companies face problems related to compliance to immigration rules with regard to their employees every year. Statistics report that global companies spend nearly half a billion dollars on immigration processes annually.

In the wake of the rise in terrorist activities since the disastrous 9/11 attack, the immigration laws have become stringent, and immigrants are under constant surveillance. The Immigration Department regularly issues strings of notices requiring companies in the country to provide information on their employees who are nationals of certain countries, landing the human resource departments of many corporations in a tight spot. Most departments often do not have sufficient information on the employee - starting from the current location of the employee. The recent economic recession has only added fuel to the fire. A slip in even a single regulation could leave an organization and its employees in a thick soup.

"Immigration has been and continues to be one of the top most challenges for MNCs around the world. With a large section of employees deployed across different countries, immigration management is a complex and demanding chore that haunts the HR managers in corporations," explains Umesh Vaidyamath, CEO, INSZoom. Local laws and confusing interpretations leave this process a paper-heavy task, requiring much time and intense attention in managing it - from the first immigration applications to various statutes of maintenance, compliances, and so on.