Raymond Georges

I'm a first-generation American, so advocating hard for people trying to build a life here isn't abstract to me. It's personal, and it's a big part of why I do this. 

Most of my work at Serotte Immigration Partners is with founders, employers, and the employees they bring on, along with families sorting out their status. A lot of it sits on the corporate side (tech-sector companies especially), and I spend a good amount of time on complex transactions like mergers and divestitures where immigration questions are hiding inside the deal (which too few people tend to flag early enough). 

The first thing I do depends on who's across the table. With employees and families, I want the bigger picture and the long-term plan before anything else. For an employer, the real question is the company's actual intentions for the person and how much risk they're comfortable carrying. With founders, I'm looking to build in as much long-term flexibility as I can, because immigration decisions made early tend to shape how far and how fast they can expand later. 

If I had to name the most common mistake people make, it's treating immigration as something they can deal with after the corporate or employment pieces are settled. That's backwards. Status is the foundation everything else stands on. Move on the other pieces without it and you can find the ground giving way under a deal or a hire you thought was done. 

Part of my job is telling a client when an idea isn't a good one and pointing them toward a better approach. If they take the advice, I've done my job as their counselor. If they don't, and the situation is salvageable, we move to protecting what we can. Either way they get my honest read. 

What I've learned to spot early are the red flags… those small things that turn into real problems if nobody catches them. That means knowing when to get someone on the phone or in for a meeting before a situation hardens. I can usually tell fairly quickly whether a client who feels lost still has enough runway to course-correct. When they do, and they're willing to engage, I'll go a long way to help them get there. 

If you ask me for one word for what I do, it's guide. A strategy on its own is just a map, and someone still has to walk the route with you and make the calls when the terrain changes. 

The thing I try hardest to earn is trust, because it's what clients want most and the thing they can't get from a form or a search result. When someone comes in anxious, I bring them back to what's actually true, the objective facts and a clearly defined outcome, and I remind them that this only works when we trust each other. A lot of what looks like a crisis on day one turns out to be frustration carried over from a previous firm. Once a client sees that I'm responsive and genuinely in their corner, the whole thing gets easier.