Envoy is a global immigration services provider offering the only immigration management platform that makes it seamless for companies to hire and manage an international workforce. We combine expert legal representation and proprietary technology to bring efficiency and transparency to the immigration process for employers and employees.
At Envoy Global, we believe employees are happier, companies are more successful and our world is a stronger place when people are able to work and live anywhere that opportunity beckons. Yet the corporate immigration process—both in the U.S. and countries around the world— has historically been confusing and time-consuming as a result of changing government policies and outdated HR approaches.
Using technology to solve these challenges seems obvious today, but Envoy was the first to seize this opportunity. Formerly known as VISANOW, Envoy was founded in Chicago in 1998 by Robert Meltzer to help people navigate the immigration and visa application process. The company raised its first outside capital in 2014, and shortly after, Dick Burke was named CEO of the company. In 2016, we rebranded as Envoy Global to reflect two years of service and technology enhancements that brought a record number of new enterprise customers to the company.
Last year, we released the fourth major iteration of our platform, with features that enable efficiency and real-time collaboration between employers, attorneys and foreign national employees, leveraging nimble technology to help employers and employees navigate the ever-changing immigration process.
Combining intuitive software and user-friendly design with more accessible legal representation alleviates the inherent anxiety and uncertainty for foreign nationals on their immigration journey and creates a better experience for them as job candidates and employees, an important aspect that can be overlooked in corporate immigration where HR professionals become middlemen or bottlenecks in the flow of information.
By making it easier and less risky for employers to hire foreign talent, Envoy enables workers to pursue career advancement, utilize their talents and reach their full potential. For many individuals, these opportunities affect not just their careers, but their ability to live and raise a family in the country of their choosing, creating an upwards trajectory that will benefit their children and grandchildren for generations to come.
Envoy has also significantly disrupted an industry once dominated by law firms that didn’t offer transparency and efficiency. For decades, employers and the attorneys that served them maintained the status quo, forgoing technology and utilizing unreliable methods of communication, case management and reporting. Envoy was the first to seize the opportunity to bring corporate immigration into the 21st century, and it is the only immigration services provider to offer a truly end-to-end solution for employers and their employees.
In 2019, we were recognized for our commitment to technological innovation with two major Chicago-area awards: The Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS Industry Disrupter Award and the Chicago Innovation Award.
