“We had to learn how to be experts on the exceptions. To any rule, there's an exception.”

Navigating the U.S. immigration system has never been easy, explains Jennifer Schear, founding partner at Schear Immigration Law Firm, but 2020 brought a new level of difficulty to the process. While embassies were closed and there were visa and travel bans, she shares that there are always exceptions, and her firm became experts at finding those exceptions. They specialize in helping Israeli tech companies obtain work visas and green cards for founders and employees moving to the U.S. Though the last 18 months have been hard, Schear says things have recently opened up more, and there have been many companies wanting to relocate workers very quickly. She advises entrepreneurs who expect to expand into the U.S. to start working with an immigration lawyer as soon as possible. Even if it is too early to begin the official process, thinking through strategy and laying the foundation will help.

 

 

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Tell me about yourself. How did you become an expert in immigration law?

I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a Jewish community. I went to a religious Jewish school. I came to do a year abroad program at Bar-Ilan University thinking I'm just coming to do this one year. But I ended up staying here. I finished my studies here. I ended up very randomly being a paralegal at a U.S. immigration firm, where I worked for 10 years.

After that, I found myself at one of Israel's largest full service commercial firms, establishing and running the practice of U.S. immigration. And then I established my own law firm, Schear Immigration, we're a boutique U.S. immigration firm. We just celebrated our fifth anniversary.

What does it mean to be an immigration firm?

We are very niche. We do corporate immigrations for companies that are establishing a presence in the United States, and they need to get work visas and green cards for founders and key employees. We also have a family-based section and a high net worth private client practice. But about 90% of our clients are tech companies.

Tell me about the complexity. Why do we even need an immigration firm?

U.S. immigration historically, and now more than ever, has been very restrictive. A lot of people want to go to the United States. In order to keep it exclusive, I guess, the rules need to be tight. You need a lawyer to really help you strategize, especially for tech companies. They're starting with maybe no employees in the States, but their primary market is the U.S.

There are a myriad of different types of work visas. It involves a process of building a petition saying why this company is going to contribute to the United States; why we need this person; why they have the skills, the background, the know-how. Basically, convincing the U.S. immigration authority to let them in. It's not something that a private individual could do themselves. It's a process. It's lengthy. It's document-intensive. You really need a strategy in place for that above and beyond the actual legal work.

Is this something that you were drawn to from the get-go?

Actually, no. I knew I wanted to go into law. Despite my 12 years of Jewish schooling, I wasn't ready to go right into law school in Israel simply because everything was in Hebrew. I was working at this high-tech company in an admin position, and a paralegal role opened up. Within six months, I was doing the attorney work. They sent me to law school. I worked all through law school and did the bar exams while I was at that firm. That's how I got into this field.

Share with me what you've been observing in terms of trends.

U.S. immigration law has never been a walk in the park. It's always been difficult. Things got really a lot more difficult after 9/11. Then 2020 was a nightmare for U.S. immigration. We were dealing with travel restrictions, visa bans, travel bans, and embassy closures. This was putting an effective stop to U.S. immigration for more than a year and a half.

We saw a bit of a shift during that period of more people who were already in the U.S. asking for green cards. The other thing was: how do we get there with all these restrictions? We pretty much learned how to be the experts on the exceptions because there was a list of exceptions. To any rule, there's an exception. How do we fit these people into these really, really narrow exceptions?

With the change of administration to Biden, everything came back. More companies wanted to relocate and quickly. Over the past three months, we've seen, really, a stampede.

Is it roughly the same process for each company? Or is it on a case-by-case basis?

It is on a case-by-case basis. There are a limited number of work visa options for Israelis to start with. We need to fit each employee into one of those five or six categories. Sometimes, there are no options. Tech companies will come to me sometimes pre-investment, for example. I say, "You guys aren't ready yet. But in a year, you are going to be ready. Here's what you need to do to hit the ground running." Each case is different. There are nuances.

I'm also an advisory partner on Gil Dibner’s team for Angular Ventures. We need to deal with companies that are not Israeli. For example, specific travel restrictions for foreign nationals coming from Europe.

As a young entrepreneur, when should I be thinking about this? When is the right time to go and consult with an immigration firm?

The easy answer is as early as possible. You know that your target market is the United States, and eventually you are going to need to get there. As soon as you know that this is what you're going to do, that is the time to come and consult with an immigration firm. Do it as early as possible to avoid those pitfalls and delays in the process. Believe me, there are plenty of them along the way.

As you're getting approached by new companies, are they surprised by the process? We're ready for things to move very quickly in the tech world.

From my experience, most entrepreneurs and founders are not coming to me with zero knowledge. They've spoken to their VCs, or they've spoken to their colleagues. They're coming with some kind of idea. Actually, it helps in a lot of ways because they can rely on other people's experiences just for the general process.

With the Israelis, they want to know everything, so I pull out every possible question that I've heard over and over and try to answer it for them in advance to minimize the surprises. But again, we're dealing with a field that is uncertain and in uncertain times. So, we're trying to manage those expectations.

Tell me about where we're headed and what you've been observing with trends in the process.

The change of administration has definitely helped matters. I don't want to say because Biden got in, things are going to be a walk in the park. But over the past couple of years, there have been some additions that were really helpful, especially to Israelis. The introduction of the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa was a huge deal.

There's been a revival of the new international entrepreneur rule. It's not a visa, but it gives special permission to enter for certain entrepreneurs who have gotten investment from qualified investors. In 2020, there were absolutely no adjudications for that. But hope is on the horizon.

What really fascinated you as a kid?

I was always interested in international travel. I got to travel a lot in the U.S. When I came to Israel, Europe was more accessible. Something that was a dream of mine was to go to Japan. In September 2019, I got to go for about 10 days.

What really inspires you?

Something I took up over the past year and a half is Muay Thai, which is a mixed martial art. I go to this hard-core fight club, and I train twice a week. It requires, for me, a really high level of physical and mental focus. It’s just a certain mental and physical connection that sort of completes me as a human being.

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

Independent. Sensitive. Minimalist.

Michael Matias, Forbes 30 Under 30, is the author of Age is Only an Int: Lessons I Learned as a Young Entrepreneur. He studies Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University, while working as a software engineer at Hippo Insurance and as a Senior Associate at J-Ventures. Matias previously served as an officer in the 8200 unit. 20MinuteLeaders is a tech entrepreneurship interview series featuring one-on-one interviews with fascinating founders, innovators and thought leaders sharing their journeys and experiences.

 

Contributing editors: Michael Matias, Megan Ryan