ITA Announces New Immigration Benefits Through Partnerships with Road to Status and Envoy

The collaboration will provide local tech companies with powerful resources with which to navigate immigration and visa application matters crucial to talent retention


CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - April 25, 2017) - The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) reinforced their stance on immigration today through strategic partnerships with Road to Status, a non-profit organization on the front line of immigration issues, and Envoy, a leading immigration services provider leveraging a proprietary technology platform. The collaborations will provide safe, easy to use, and affordable immigration benefits to employees at ITA member companies and their extended families. Through these partnerships, members, employees, and their families will receive access to Road to Status' online immigration application preparation services at a significant member benefit discount. In addition, ITA member companies will also receive access to low-cost network partner attorney application reviews and other add-on services.

The partnerships also demonstrate ITA's wide support of the bi-partisan BRIDGE act and Chicago's sanctuary city status. These efforts keep young people here under DACA, ensuring future generations continue to have the opportunities afforded them while promoting economic growth and diversity within the Chicago tech ecosystem.

"Immigrants have played a pivotal role in Chicago's innovation and tech evolution. We want all members of the tech community to have access to safe and affordable immigration benefits. Supporting programs, such as Envoy and Road to Status, will help grow the size and diversity of our talent pool helps to strengthen our local tech ecosystem." -Julia Kanouse, CEO, Illinois Technology Association

"Our company was built on the premise of making immigration support services affordable and more accessible to individuals, families, and businesses of all types. Nearly 1 in 6 people living and working in America are immigrants. Providing low-cost and high quality immigration services as part of a company's standard benefits offering will become the norm. As true innovators, advocates, and entrepreneurs, ITA again seizes this opportunity to offer a unique benefit to its members at just the right time." -John Paul Demirdjian, COO/ Principal, Road to Status

"For nearly two decades, Envoy has been helping businesses and immigrants navigate the stressful, confusing and inefficient visa application process. We are grateful for ITA's support and spotlight on this all too important issue. Immigrants have made a tremendous impact on our society, particularly the Chicago tech scene, and we hope to continue, both in our business and in the community, to remove barriers to encourage diversity and inclusion in the workforce." -Dick Burke, CEO of Envoy

About ITA
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) scales Illinois tech companies. With innovative resources that allow members to collaborate with each other, build their talent networks and elevate their local and national presence, ITA is the region's strongest advocate for fostering innovation and growth. Founded in 2005 and supporting 500-plus growth-stage tech companies, ITA has a rich history of driving the business forward. For more information, visit illinoistech.org, follow @ITAbuzz on Twitter or find us on LinkedIn.

About Road to Status
Road to Status, LLC provides easy-to-use, secure, and affordable application preparation software solutions that helps individuals, attorneys, non-profits, and corporate businesses complete immigration applications online. Road to Status users can access these intuitive immigration tools and services securely online and from any device. Road to Status is making it easier and less expensive to complete and file immigration paperwork accurately the first time, every time, avoiding costly delays. Learn more about Road to Status, LLC at www.roadtostatus.com or watch a short video here.

About Envoy
Founded in 1998, Envoy is a global immigration services provider. Envoy combines expert legal representation -- for both inbound and outbound immigration -- and proprietary technology, making it seamless for companies to hire and operate an international workforce. This technology empowers companies to acquire the best talent regardless of where they are in the world, mobilizes employees around the world to take advantage of business opportunities, and enables the management of entire global workforces. Envoy has handled more than 30,000 cases and served more than 2,000 customers in a broad range of industries.

Contact Information:

Contact:
Gary Hotze
gary@illinoistech.org
+1.312.924.1044