New Delhi — A Bengaluru-born scientist, Priyanka Kulkarni, has built an AI-driven system to streamline employment-based US immigration, cutting paperwork, time and legal costs for professionals and employers.

From personal challenge to startup

Kulkarni, 34, worked for nearly a decade at Microsoft on an H-1B visa and found the experience “exhausting, confusing and at times career-limiting.” Drawing from that background, she launched the startup Casium in 2024, aiming to digitise and automate many aspects of the immigration filing process.

How the AI tool works

Casium provides employers with an online portal that takes in candidate data and uses AI “agents” to scan public sources such as research papers and patents to build a professional profile. Based on that, it generates visa-eligibility dossiers, drafts attorney letters and flags compliance issues.

Among the visa types supported are:

  • Temporary work visas (H-1B, O-1)
  • Employment-based green cards (EB-1A, EB-1B, EB-1C, EB-2 NIW, EB-2 PERM)

The process claims to reduce document preparation time from several months to fewer than ten working days.

Funding and market context

Casium recently raised USD 5 million in seed funding from investors including Maverick Ventures and the AI2 Incubator in Seattle. The launch comes amid increased volatility in US visa policy — for instance, the recent executive order requiring a USD 100,000 fee for new H-1B applications has sparked litigation and concern among employers.

Implications and challenges

For Indian professionals and companies hiring abroad, Casium offers a more transparent, efficient route through a process long plagued by delays and complexity. However, the technology still relies on oversight by attorneys and paralegals, and its broader success will depend on regulatory acceptance, maintaining high approval rates and scaling globally.

Kulkarni said, “Everything I’ve done has culminated to this point,” highlighting how her own experience inspired the innovation.

Conclusion

In building Casium, Priyanka Kulkarni is leveraging her immigration journey to transform how skilled migration is handled. If successful, the platform may help thousands of professionals navigate US work and green-card visas more smoothly, at a lower cost and shorter timeline.