H-1B holders laid off from big tech have a 60-day grace period to find a new sponsor or leave the country, with few centralized resources to navigate alternatives quickly.
Combines a job board of verified H-1B-friendly employers, an O-1A eligibility screener, day-1 CPT program directory, and a global remote-job marketplace for workers considering relocation.
freemium — free job search, premium ($29/mo) for visa-timeline tracker, attorney matching, and priority employer introductions; employers pay per successful placement
This is existential-level pain. You have 60 days to find a new sponsor or uproot your entire life — family, mortgage, children's schools, career. People in this situation will pay almost anything for a clear path forward. It's not a nice-to-have; it's avoid-deportation-level urgency. The Reddit thread with 169 upvotes barely scratches the surface — Blind and WhatsApp groups are full of desperate, real-time pleas for help.
TAM is meaningful but bounded. ~600-750K active H-1B holders, with an estimated 50-150K facing transitions annually. At $200-500/user for premium, that's $20-50M/year on the consumer side. Adding B2B employer placement fees could push to $100M+. It's a real business but not a billion-dollar TAM — it's a niche vertical SaaS/marketplace. Expansion to other visa categories (L-1, OPT, TN) broadens it somewhat.
People facing deportation with families and careers at stake will pay premium prices. Immigration attorneys charge $3,000-15,000 per case and have no shortage of clients. $29/month for premium tools is trivially cheap compared to the alternative. Employer placement fees are standard in recruiting. The comp here is legal services pricing, not consumer SaaS — users would likely pay significantly more than $29/month in crisis mode.
Core MVP is a curated job board + O-1A screener questionnaire + Day-1 CPT directory + attorney matching. All are buildable by a solo dev in 4-8 weeks. The job board is standard marketplace tech. The O-1A screener is a guided questionnaire (not AI magic — just structured criteria from USCIS guidelines). The CPT directory is a curated database. Attorney matching is a referral marketplace. No hard technical moats, but the curation and trust layer IS the product. Visa timeline tracker adds some complexity but is doable.
This is the strongest signal. No existing product combines these features or is designed around the 60-day crisis window. Competitors are either B2B (Envoy, Deel), data-only (MyVisaJobs, H1BGrader), too broad (Blind), or serve narrow niches (Unshackled for founders only). Nobody has built the integrated 'what do I do in the next 60 days' workflow. The white space is enormous and clearly defined.
This is the biggest weakness. The core use case is crisis-driven and transactional — once someone finds a sponsor or resolves their status, they churn. The 60-day window means typical engagement is 2-3 months. You'd need to expand to ongoing visa tracking (green card queue monitoring, H-1B renewal prep, status change tracking) to justify long-term subscriptions. Employer subscriptions for posting/placement have better recurring potential. Community/network effects could help retention but are hard to build.
- +Existential-level pain with proven willingness to pay — this is 'avoid deportation' not 'nice to have'
- +Massive competitive white space — no integrated crisis-response platform exists despite 600K+ potential users
- +Highly defensible through curation and trust — verified employer data, attorney vetting, and CPT program reviews create a moat that's hard to replicate quickly
- +Perfect timing — layoff waves + tightening immigration policy create sustained demand growth
- +Multiple monetization vectors — consumer premium, employer placement fees, attorney referral fees, and advertising
- !Unauthorized practice of law liability — the line between 'immigration information platform' and 'legal advice' is blurry, and crossing it creates serious regulatory exposure. Must have strong disclaimers and attorney partnerships from day one.
- !Cyclical demand risk — engagement surges during layoff waves but could crater during hiring booms. Need a retention strategy beyond crisis mode.
- !High-stakes errors — incorrect information about visa timelines or eligibility could have life-altering consequences, creating both moral and legal liability. Data accuracy must be exceptional.
- !Day-1 CPT content controversy — some programs are considered borderline, and listing them could attract regulatory scrutiny or damage credibility with the legal community.
- !Cold-start marketplace problem — need both workers AND verified H-1B-friendly employers. Employers won't pay until there are users; users won't come without employer listings.
H-1B data analytics and job search platform aggregating LCA/PERM filing data, sponsor history, and salary info with a basic H-1B-friendly job board.
Anonymous professional social network used heavily by tech workers for real-time layoff intel, salary sharing, and crowdsourced H-1B advice from verified company employees.
Global EOR and contractor management platform that acquired Legalpad
Enterprise immigration case management SaaS for HR/legal departments to track employee visa cases, coordinate with attorneys, and ensure compliance.
Free tools that grade H-1B sponsors by approval/denial rates and provide searchable salary databases from LCA filings. Workers use them to assess employer sponsorship reliability.
Week 1-2: Build a curated, searchable database of 200+ verified H-1B-friendly employers (sourced from public LCA data + manual verification), with a simple application tracker. Week 3-4: Add the O-1A eligibility screener (a 15-question guided questionnaire based on USCIS extraordinary ability criteria that outputs a preliminary assessment + recommended next steps). Week 5-6: Launch a Day-1 CPT directory with honest reviews and an attorney matching form (start with 10-15 vetted immigration attorneys in major metro areas who pay per lead). Week 7-8: Add the visa timeline tracker (60-day countdown, key dates, filing deadlines) and premium tier. Ship as a responsive web app — no mobile app needed yet. Seed the job board by scraping/curating from public H-1B filing data before employers self-list.
Free tier: job search, basic O-1A screener, CPT directory browsing → Premium ($29-49/month): visa timeline tracker with alerts, priority employer introductions, attorney matching with verified reviews, personalized action plan → Employer tier ($500-2000/placement): verified 'H-1B Friendly' badge, promoted listings, access to pre-screened candidates → Attorney marketplace (20-30% referral fee on consultations booked): attorneys pay for qualified leads → Scale: expand to L-1, OPT, TN, EB-1A green card pathways; add immigration insurance/legal retainer products; white-label crisis toolkit to employers' HR departments
4-6 weeks to first revenue if you launch with attorney matching (attorneys will pay for leads immediately) and a basic premium tier. The attorney referral marketplace is the fastest path to revenue — immigration attorneys are already paying $50-200 per qualified lead on other platforms. Employer placement revenue follows in months 3-6 as the job board gains traction.
- “layoffs mount”
- “tech goliaths have undergone successive rounds of job cuts”
- “hiring has reduced”
- “AI is already eating up one side”