Webinar Recap: Building an Immigration Program for the First Time

Talon Bartolo shared his experience after inheriting an immigration program for the first time.

“Someone walked up to me and said, ‘My visa expires in six months. What do I do?’”

That was the start of his crash course in running an immigration program. He shared that story, and what he learned from it, on Aug. 12, when Bartolo, a senior HR business partner at 8x8, joined Nicole Gunara, principal immigration attorney for Manifest Law, for a conversation on building an immigration program from scratch. Here are five moments that stuck with us.

1. A deer in headlights

When Bartolo first started, employees were sometimes on edge, waiting for visa updates. They pinged him but he had nothing to tell them.

He had no way to check case status without waiting on his law firm to respond over email, and that took up to 72 hours.

“I couldn’t answer the simple questions,” Bartolo said. “I would sit there [like] a deer in headlights and I felt horrible.”

If your law firm can’t tell you where a case stands without a multi-day email delay, that could be a warning sign.

2. What should your attorney tell you before filing?

Bartolo once asked his old law firm whether it could file an EB-1A petition for an employee. They said yes and moved forward. But the firm didn’t mention that the petition had a slim chance of approval. It was denied.

“Yes, you can submit for any visa you want,” Bartolo said. “But I want to know, what are the chances of them passing?”

The rejection shrank the employee’s timeline to keep their work authorization. A good legal partner flags long odds before filing.

3. Audit your true population

Not every foreign national in your company will show up on a sponsorship list.

“There’s a big difference between who you sponsored versus the true population of foreign nationals,” Gunara said.

Some employees show up with an employment authorization document (EAD) already in hand. To audit your true foreign national population, Gunara said you can pull I-9 or E-Verify records, then sort cases by urgency:

• Red: The case is mid-flight or needs action now. Escalate immediately.
• Yellow: Something looks off, like dates or records that don’t add up. Flag it to counsel.
• Green: The records line up across HR systems. No action needed.

4. Ditch the spreadsheets

Bartolo had a blunt verdict on tracking immigration cases by spreadsheet.

“Don’t do the spreadsheets,” he said. “Don’t do it. I’ve seen it at large companies, I’ve seen it at small companies. Don’t do it.”

That’s three ‘don’t do its’ if you’re keeping score. His reasoning? Spreadsheets are manual, hard to read at a glance, and nobody likes them.

Bartolo said it’s part of why he hired Manifest Law, citing its automated dashboard and AI-assisted case tracking.

5. Framing cost around growth

When finance pushes back the cost of an immigration program, Bartolo asks: Is this a critical role for the company?

If the answer is yes, he said, the conversation shouldn’t be about cost at all.

“Do you want to grow and push the needle forward, or do you just want to stare at the cost of everything?”

Bartolo frames it as a scope decision. Do you want to hire only people who live near your office, or do you want to hire the best people in the world?

“We all know the answer,” he said.

Watch the full conversation

Gunara shared a reminder that immigration isn’t just about compliance.

“At the end of the day, it’s somebody’s life here in the United States and their authority to stay, whether it’s for themselves, their spouse, their children,” she said.

The full recording covers more, including the impact of a well-run immigration program, how to handle student populations, and how Bartolo and Gunara track cases. Watch it here.

Disclaimer. This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it, or contacting Manifest Law through this site, does not create an attorney-client relationship. Immigration law changes frequently, and the information here is current only as of the publication date. For advice on your specific situation, consult a licensed attorney. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This communication is attorney advertising.