U.S. immigration law is both complex and fast-changing, presenting significant challenges for businesses and individuals attempting to navigate it. Elizabeth Kumbhari, Founder and Owner of Go Global Immigration, PLLC, recognizes these challenges and guides businesses through the legal maze to build and grow their U.S. immigration programs.
Elizabeth founded Go Global Immigration after identifying a gap in the industry. She notes that while most U.S. immigration law firms can submit individual petitions, many fail to support U.S. companies in their larger immigration programmatic needs. For example, it is common for a US law firm to be hired to complete a single or a set of petitions, but rarely, it is engaged through the life cycle of the employee- from recruitment, to hiring, through promotions and departure.
Prior to establishing Go Global Immigration, Elizabeth served as Vice President of Client Management, Americas Immigration at Newland Chase, a CIBT Company. She also worked as Amazon’s Business Advisory, Canada and Latin America Lead. Before that, as General Counsel and Vice President of Professional Exchange Programs at Cultural Vistas, Elizabeth led one of the largest J-1 visa programs in the U.S. She also has experience working in the academic sector as Director of International Offices for Long Island University and Northern Kentucky University.
Elizabeth currently sits on the Board of Directors at Worldwide ERC, Global Ties U.S., and The Letter Project. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, where she serves on the Online Course Review Committee. Additionally, she is a member and contributing author at Forbes Business Council and a corporate advisor at AI2030. Elizabeth holds a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership and Learning (EdD) from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctor from Northern Kentucky University.
The Beginning of Interest in Immigration
Elizabeth became interested in the concept of immigration at a very young age. At 16, she spent a year in Germany, attending Gymnasium as an international exchange student through a government-funded program, called Congress-Bundestag. At the time, she lived with a host family and attended all of her courses in German. Her year-long stay in Germany and her experience there made her recognize the impact of immigration.
Journey in the Immigration Law Space
For more than 18 years, Elizabeth has been working in the immigration law space in a diversity of roles. For many years, she worked with international students and scholars at universities, marveling at how they brought their culture and life experiences to the classrooms. “These international students challenged professors and American students about their assumptions and provided unique perspectives, which not only enriched the whole campus but also allowed the community to grow,” Elizabeth points out.
Later in her career, she supported thousands of companies hosting tens of thousands of J-1 interns, trainees, and teachers. While doing that, she witnessed the value the foreign nationals brought to their U.S. companies. Elizabeth says that they taught them new ways of marketing, manufacturing, and other important business practices. And, during her time working in immigration at Amazon, Elizabeth observed instances where expertise was needed, and the most qualified individuals in a niche field required U.S. immigration processes to complete their work.
Elizabeth finds excitement and motivation in recognizing the need to balance national security with the benefits of welcoming foreign nationals to the U.S. through the immigration process. This drives her to do her best work.
In addition to a law degree, she holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership and Learning. It is through these combined lenses that she approaches immigration. “I am interested in providing programmatic support to clients as opposed to focusing only on individual petitions,” Elizabeth says. “I am in this field because I believe in the value of short and long-term immigration.”
She believes that companies and individuals benefit from the exchange of diverse ideas, and frequently, this diversity can be found in people who grew up in countries other than the U.S.
About Go Global Immigration
Elizabeth notes that the U.S. is the leader in many industries, but its continued growth depends on understanding global challenges and opportunities in the sphere of educational institutions, technology, medical offerings, and businesses. “We should not be limited by national borders,” she says. Immigration law and system play a key role in the process of facilitating the exchange of talent across borders.
Elizabeth’s decision to start Go Global Immigration was driven by her interest in simplifying the US immigration system for companies. Founded in June of 2024, it is a boutique U.S. Immigration law firm, specializing in building immigration programs for companies of all sizes. According to Elizabeth, they are affiliated with CIBT/ Newland Chase.
Go Global Immigration strives to be a true partner to companies, helping them with all of their US immigration needs. It provides support and advises talent acquisition teams about immigration, so recruiters know how to answer their candidates’ questions. Elizabeth points out that they work with human resource teams to write onboarding and benefit policies that meet both the company and foreign national population’s needs. In addition to that, they also help companies navigate the H-1b lottery, with timelines that explain when the company should start to create their lottery lists and understand who within the company should be included on that list.
Additionally, Go Global Immigration supports multinational companies through its partnerships with global immigration experts who can advise on alternative immigration options outside of the country. “At Go Global Immigration, we strive to partner with corporate HR teams to support the entire immigration journey,” Elizabeth says.
Goals for the Future
Elizabeth believes that Go Global Immigration will revolutionize the US Immigration law firm model. By providing programmatic support to clients, the firm intends to increase regulatory compliance, and proactive communications to employees, and remove much of the legal burden from the HR professionals.
Mentorship Is Important
When Elizabeth decided to establish Go Global Immigration, she created a list of 15 experts in immigration and entrepreneurship who she had met during her professional journey. Some of these were her previous supervisors, while others she had only met briefly during a meeting. As she didn’t have everyone’s contact information, she reached out to some of them for advice via LinkedIn. Luckily, they all agreed to spend 15- 30 minutes with her and provide their valuable advice. “After I completed all of these exploratory calls, I realized that every expert was a woman,” Elizabeth says. “This highlights the importance of representation and mentorship.” She shares that she received the most valuable advice when she was willing to be vulnerable and identify her own weaknesses and knowledge gaps.
Though Elizabeth’s experience with female leaders has been exceptional, male executives were the first ones to encourage her to start her own firm. Senior leaders at CIBT/Newland Chase, particularly Marc Kaplan and Steve Diehl, have been crucial business mentors for her. “I wouldn’t have been able to make it this far on this journey without them,” she says. “So, in my experience, you need strong mentors and leaders in your life- both male and female.”
Updating Knowledge on Immigration Law
Immigration is an exciting field due to its frequent changes in regulations and policies, according to Elizabeth. To stay current, she is constantly learning about the latest developments in immigration law. She gains regular education through professional associations such as the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the American Bar Association, and WERC: The Global Community for Talent Mobility. Additionally, Elizabeth benefits from working with leading immigration experts. “I am fortunate to have worked with some of the most brilliant immigration experts who allow me to brainstorm with them about regulation and process changes,” she says.
She also considers herself fortunate because Go Global Immigration is affiliated with CIBT/ Newland Chase, a leading global immigration provider.
Fostering a Culture of Innovation
US Immigration is constantly changing because it is enforced by many different agencies and individuals. As a result, Elizabeth is always looking for new ways to utilize tools such as data analytics and AI to support her clients, train the team, and learn about changes.
She highlights that to foster a culture of innovation, it is important for leadership to expect and support some failure. “Effective innovation occurs quickly, without all possible data points, but good leaders must be comfortable with the necessary ambiguity that supports innovation,” she says.
“Comfort with ambiguity” and the “drive to continue to learn” are the two characteristics Elizabeth looks for when hiring and partnering with others. The reason she focuses on these two skill sets is because she finds them very difficult to teach.
She also points out that evolving and growing companies are frequently in a state of flux and ambiguity is found throughout the work environment, and according to her, the best way to counterbalance ambiguity is through continuous learning.
“I expect innovation to occur on a daily basis in our firm because we should always ask ourselves how we can improve the experience for the client,” she says.
Message to Aspiring Women Professionals
In her message to women aspiring to enter traditionally male-dominated fields, she tells them to find their own group of champions and mentors. She also encourages them to seek people who may have faced and overcome challenges similar to theirs, and also those people whose journeys were very different from their own.
