A startup in Silicon Valley hopes to streamline the cumbersome immigration form backlog with a program that would be the TurboTax of immigration forms.
The program, FileRight, would finally move the immigration form system online. Currently the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is still almost entirely paper-based.
The technology would help simplify the often confusing paperwork, and check for common errors on the forms. The smallest mistake, like filling out the wrong line, can disqualify the entire lengthy application.
Would-be immigrants often cannot afford to hire lawyers to help them with the paperwork, causing endless complications for both the immigrants and USCIS. This encourages fraudulent lawyers to prey on desperate immigrants, and provides yet another incentive for them to ultimately enter the United States illegally.
The Hill interviewed FileRight’s founder, Cesare Alessandrini, who started developing FileRight in 2003, after helping his wife move to the United States from Argentina:
After going through the application process, which he called confusing and complicated, Alessandrini said he had “the ah-ha moment” about moving the system into the digital age.
USCIS currently allows individuals and attorneys operating on behalf of immigrants to file some forms online, but it still operates mainly on a paper system.
USCIS told The Hill they are not currently planning to accept third-party submissions of paperwork in the same way the IRS accepts TurboTax, but FileRight has been traveling to Washington and meeting with Obama administration officials to pitch their idea.
Read the full story at The Hill.
