Meet the Startup Visa Lawyer trying to change the law while helping startups and founders grow
Tahmina Watson, founder of Watson Immigration Law in Seattle, fell into immigration law by chance and hasn’t looked back since. She is now a nationally acclaimed, award-winning lawyer, best-selling author, podcast host, and go-to media expert. Tahmina has become a passionate advocate for the need for more flexible immigration pathways in the United States, including a startup visa to help entrepreneurs create companies – and U.S. jobs. Business Insider lists Tahmina as one of the top immigration attorneys in American for tech startups.
Tahmina was early in her law career as a barrister in the United Kingdom when she experienced her own version of “Sleepless in Seattle.” After meeting someone on a blind date, she immigrated to the United States in 2005 to join the man who is now her husband. After going through the immigration process herself, she was presented with the chance to practice U.S. immigration law. She took the opportunity reluctantly at first, as it wasn’t her preferred choice of law. However, she quickly realized immigration law was everything she wanted in her practice – a fast-moving, complex legal field that deeply impacts human lives. From reuniting loved ones, to helping individuals obtain U.S. citizenship, to helping entrepreneurs successfully obtain visas, and to helping businesses secure visas for their employees, she found herself thriving in this area of law.
Speaking at St. Mary’s Law School, Texas
In 2009, during the height of the recession, Tahmina opened the doors of Watson Immigration Law in downtown Seattle. The recession had taken its toll on skilled workers who had come to the U.S. to join Seattle’s large influential international companies. Many of these workers who faced layoffs now wanted to use their knowledge, networks and expertise to start ventures of their own in this city’s thriving environment for innovation. That was the genesis of Tahmina’s lifelong work of advocating for a new visa category for startup founders.
While assisting many startups and founders with their immigration needs, Tahmina has become one of the most consistent voices in advocating for a startup visa. Her best-selling book The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth and Economic Prosperity has gained much acclaim. The book launched at South by Southwest in 2015 with a second edition released in 2021. The new edition includes a foreword written by renowned venture investor Brad Feld.
Tahmina’s current project is the Startup Visa Guide Book, scheduled for release on July 4, 2023 which is currently available on pre-order on Amazon. It will be available with book retailers too.
She also writes a monthly column in Above the Law in which she shares insights and opinions on current trending immigration issues including how the law affects entrepreneurs and skilled immigrants.
Tahmina is passionate about protecting human rights, particularly during various threats to immigration. She has helped create innovative legal clinics and legal representation programs to assist vulnerable immigrants.
When she is not writing or lawyering, you will find Tahmina spending time on bird photography, a hobby she picked up during the pandemic.
Tahmina and her team at Watson Immigration Law practice immigration law with love and compassion. Their clients are startups, small to medium businesses, individuals, founders, entrepreneurs and investors. Their clients are often individual founders, co-founders, or startups at all stages including those that have raised funds from angel or venture capital investors or are entering the U.S. market to scale from a different country. They have expertise in H-1B, E-2, L-1, O-1, TN and all nonimmigrant and immigrant visas for business in all industries, especially in tech. Tahmina and her team have helped many a startup navigate the complex visa maze from getting off the ground through the journeys of mergers and acquisitions, exits and IPOs.
Tahmina Watson, founder of Watson Immigration Law, is an award-winning lawyer, best-selling author, columnist, host of two podcasts, a media commentator, and one of America’s top immigration lawyers for tech startups. She is also the mother of two beautiful daughters and a passionate bird photographer.
WORDS OF WISDOM:
America is a land of immigrants. Immigrants shaped and fed its democracy, explored its interior, built its infrastructure and honed it, brick by brick and invention by invention, into the world’s greatest economy. These immigrants came to this country from everywhere around the globe for its promise of freedom and unlimited potential.
History demonstrates that, despite restrictions placed on immigration since the latter half of the19th century, economic prosperity and increased immigration go hand in hand. The industrial revolution of the 19th century is laced with many such stories, as immigrants continued to make a lasting impression on this still-young nation with physical growth, business, and jobs. Founders of Bose, BigLots, Levi’s Jeans, Whatsapp, Zoom and Moderna, are all immigrants. You can read my book The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth and Economic Prosperity” for moreexamples.
Today’s America continues to build on past successes. And innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership by immigrants is a key factor in continuing our global influence. Nearly 45 percent of all Fortune 500companies in the nation had at least one founder who was an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. 101 companies on the list were founded by immigrants and 122 more were founded by the children of immigrants with a combined revenue of $6.1 trillion in 2018.
In Washington State particularly, immigrants have made a tremendous impact. 14.9% or over 1.1 million Washington residents are immigrants. 21.4% of businesses in Washington State are created by immigrants with over 75,000 immigrant entrepreneurs and a combined revenue of $2.2billion.
With the headquarters of several Fortune 100 companies such as Amazon, Adobe, Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, and T-Mobile, and offices for other tech companies such Meta, Google, and Stripe in the greater Seattle metro area, skilled immigrant workers are vital for our local economy.
Some of our prominent Washington State immigrant leaders include Swedish born, late John W. Nordstrom, founder of Nordstrom, Indian-Americans Satya Nadella, (CEO, Microsoft), Laxman Narasimhan (CEO, Starbucks), Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, British-American Kaj Pederson, Chief Technology Officer of AstrumU to name just a few.
“Immigrants get the job done,” and nowhere is it truer than in Seattle, Washington State.
