Since Friedman’s “flatworldnomics” became the style of corporate work culture, global travel has become an accepted business-as-usual way of conducting transactions. Even as businesses realize that having the right human talent at the right place at the right time is critical to their success, many have come up against the wall of immigration processing that is still way behind.

“In countries where the state and religion are closely aligned, people who transgress immigration policies unknowingly could be caned, or worse, even beheaded,” says Umesh Vaidyamath, the founder and CEO of INSZoom, an immigration software company with offices in San Ramon, CA, and operations in the UK, India, and other key locations. He is quick to smile away the doomsday scenario—true as it may be.
Vaidyamath has a vision: One day, a specialist worker from China or India would be assigned to a role in the U.K. or elsewhere. The employee would have to simply walk to the airline counter where the agent would stamp the right visa into the employee passport. The employer’s HR department had previously filed for the visa, the concerned embassy issues it to the airline, and the last act of stamping is done right at the gates—no paper trail, no waiting periods, and endless back-and-forth of submitting evidences.

“There is no rocket science here,” says Vaidyamath. “A platform like INSZoom simply taps into the employee’s information within the company HRMS, shoots it along to the embassy or consulate that then runs an electronic check, and issues a decision.” This level of automation is imminent, claims the INSZoom CEO. “Flatworld has to come to the paper-heavy immigration processing—after all, the value of the human talent is far more critical to the corporation and to the country itself; while businesses are able to transact, countries make revenues in taxes, foreign exchange, and so on.”
Since the September 11 disaster, many countries are now tightening immigration policies while also transferring the onus of immigration compliancy on to the employer. INSZoom seeks to help companies remain compliant through automation.

Most of the immigration processes are still handled manually. INSZoom’s mission is to automate these processes. It is knocking on the doors of various stakeholders in this process—law firms, companies, employees, the government immigration agencies, and local consulates. With clients that include Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Honda, and Wipro Technologies; leading and large immigration law practices; mid-sized, small, and solo law firms; and major U.S. universities including the Universities of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan, INSZoom has emerged as the world’s largest immigration software company.