Serdar Sutay, co-founder and CTO of Boundless Immigration, founded his company based on first-hand experience. As a young engineer from Turkey, he joined the ranks of many others like himself at Microsoft in the greater Seattle area. As a result, Sutay knows all about America’s immigration reality.
Through his own experiences, and those of his colleagues and fellow immigrants in one of the most diverse cities in the US, Sutay came to understand one thing about migrating to America: though reasons for immigration and the background of migrants vary, a stressful and oftentimes confusing legal process unites them.
Now, through Boundless Immigration, Sutay helps make this legal process easier and more understandable for families. In order to do this, Boundless uses a new type of technology company, with a mission to educate and empower immigrants. They combine the expertise of immigration attorneys with the support of their in-house teams. Furthermore, they focus on providing immigrants with the tools, information and personalized support they need to navigate their legal process.
Boundless focuses on helping families navigate through the US immigration system
Sutay launched the company in February 2017. Since then, they have focused on offering customers personalized legal support. They also keep the fees smaller than those typically charged by immigration lawyers. They started with a focus on spousal visas, and offer two types of services: marriage Green Card services and naturalization service.
These flat rates cover the entire application package and customer support. Boundless reviews and prints the complete applications of customers, assembling all forms and documents precisely how the authorities prefer. Then, they mail the package to the customers for them to sign. Boundless’ website starts with basic questions to gather data on each case, and then files forms accordingly. In addition, each customer is paired with an immigration attorney and a team member. This attorney offers support and information along the way.
Boundless has labeled themselves “a modern immigration company.”
They help families navigate the complicated and intimidating US immigration system more confidently. For now, they focus on families. But co-founder Douglas Rand states that their vision involves helping everyone in the future.
Serdar Sutay emigrated from Turkey at 22 to work at Microsoft
Sutay and his fellow co-founder Xiao Wang drew their inspiration for Boundless from their own personal stories. Sutay graduated from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara in 2004. Next, he earned experience as a software engineer in İzmir. Finally, Sutay set his sights on the Seattle area. From 2006 to 2012, he first worked as a software engineer and then a program manager at Microsoft. There, he directly experienced the cultural diversity both in the area and the tech industry.
Sutay remembers poring over regulations and immigration forms with lawyers from Microsoft and his next company: it is “often too confusing to go through alone,” he says. His friend and colleague Wang has been through comparable experiences. He came to the US at 3 years old after his parents immigrated. In fact, he says that he was inspired to start the company because of his own immigration as a toddler. As he grew up, he saw the high costs his parents had to pay.
“The process is confusing enough and high-stakes enough that we ended up paying five months of rent for an immigration lawyer,” recalls Wang.
Serdar Sutay offers personalized and consistent support
“The current climate is too complex and changing too quickly for families to confidently get through the immigration process without help,” he notes. “We are ensuring that the support, information, and tools that was previously only available to those who could afford thousands of dollars for lawyers are now accessible to everyone.”
According to the team behind Boundless, Seattle offered the perfect backdrop for this new endeavor. Specifically, the city is known welcoming immigrants and celebrating their diversity.
Customers, those on the other end of the process, credit Boundless for the personalized support and sense of trust it offers. For example, one user notes how Boundless kept them updated with news on relevant policies and developments, and made them “feel like [Boundless] really cared about us.”
Learn more about Boundless here.
