Washington Business Summer 2018 | Washington Business | Page 53

business backgrounder | technology
friendly questions, easy answers
If traditional immigration paperwork is like a series of complicated
IRS forms, then the first part of the online Boundless process is
like TurboTax, which helps you feel good about answering simple
questions that get at the same information. But Boundless goes much
further. Imagine if TurboTax included a certified public accountant
who sat down with you to answer your questions, go over your tax
forms to make sure they were filled out correctly, then was available to
answer questions while you waited for your tax return to be evaluated.
“We take it to the next level,” Wang said. “We stick with you the
whole time.”
He cites a customer who had unsuccessfully submitted paperwork
on her own three times. She later told him: “I tried to apply three times
and was rejected due to mistakes each time. I contacted a bunch of
lawyers but they were so expensive. Luckily, I found Boundless.”
Not only does the Boundless review process make applications
easier for the applicant, it also helps the government. Fewer failed
submissions means fewer immigration staff resources needed to
process paperwork from the same applicant again and again.
“We’re working strictly within the legal framework that exists,”
Wang said. “We’re just making it a lot more efficient.”
‘showing what is possible’
New York Times business columnist Kevin Roose featured Boundless
last year in a roundup of “Actually Good Tech Awards” for companies
producing real societal benefits.
“These projects do not always make headlines,” Roose wrote about
Boundless and a handful of other tech companies, “but they show
what’s possible when technologists use their powers for good.”
growing quickly
Wang, 32, is originally from Bothell, but spent time in the Bay
Area, New York and Boston, where he alternated between running
established organizations and creating new ones. He most recently
worked at Amazon, where he helped develop its checkout-free Go
store. He left Amazon to start Boundless.
The company is growing quickly. A year ago it had six employees;
it’s up to 16 now, and is hiring. Wang ’s eventual goal for the
company is to become the default option for people submitting
immigration paperwork.
“We want to be the first brand in an industry that doesn’t have a
brand and has never had a positive adjective attached to it,” Wang said.
He’s not the only one who sees the need and opportunity for
innovation in that area.
“That type of technological development would greatly lower the
cost, because right now it’s generally regarded as the second-most
complicated portion of American law after the income tax,” said Alex
Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute think
tank, in a Bloomberg story on high-tech approaches to help simplify
the immigration application process.
The goal is to take the guesswork and stress out of a paperwork process
that traditionally has been an opaque minefield, Wang said.
“After talking to hundreds of immigrant families, we found it’s this
fear and uncertainty that makes this process so anxiety-ridden,” Wang
said. “No one has ever said a positive thing about the immigration
process. Much of it is due to the fact that you just don’t know if you’ve accessing the american dream
made a mistake, if you’re on the right track, what will happen next. In the first phase of its startup, Boundless focused on family-based
From my point of view, this is exactly what technology is built for. We permanent residency applicants — helping a U.S. citizen or green card
take information that was trapped in the minds of immigration officials holder to bring their loved one into the country or help them stay here.
and attorneys, and provide it to people all along the journey, so people Their next step is to help people through the naturalization process
as they apply for U.S. citizenship. Because everything in an immigration
finally feel confident that they’re doing it right.”
So far in 2018, the company has helped over 300 people complete application has to be done perfectly, Wang sees his company as a way to
their immigration applications. The government’s processing time for help people access the American dream without spending thousands of
any application can be over a year long, but early results are promising: dollars on attorney’s fees, and spending months in worry and anxiety.
All of the Boundless green card applicants who have made it to their “This is literally what technology is meant to do,” he said.
“Technology is so powerful in how it can scale and give everyone
interviews have been approved.
“I love this system,” said one Boundless client named Mariia, access to information, support and tools in a way that has never been
who immigrated from Ukraine to Seattle, in a testimonial featured achievable before. It’s an incredible opportunity to apply this to one of
on the company’s website. “It’s straightforward and I like that I the big challenges of our time.”
can see progress.”
A client named Madeline from Minnesota married her
husband, a Chilean named Jonathan, last year in Texas. They used
Boundless after an attorney quoted $2,000 in legal fees and $100
just for a consultation.
“We felt confident in our knowledge of the process, but we
were getting married, and with all of the other things on our
— Alex Nowrasteh, immigration policy analyst, Cato Institute
plate, it felt like it was worth the money to take the stress away,”
Madeline said in an interview on the company’s blog.
“That type of technological development would
greatly lower the cost, because right now it’s
generally regarded as the second-most complicated
portion of American law after the income tax.”
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