Overview
Parley represents a significant advancement in legal technology, specifically targeting the complex and time-intensive world of immigration law practice. Founded by Philip Smart, Jackson Perry, and Ian Edwards, this Y Combinator-backed startup is designed as the premier AI solution for immigration attorneys. The company's origins draw on deep firsthand knowledge of immigration practice—founder Philip Smart was inspired by his father's 25-year career as an immigration attorney.
Parley fundamentally transforms how immigration lawyers approach the preparation of visa applications by automating the most labor-intensive aspects of the work through advanced artificial intelligence and seamless workflow integrations. Instead of spending days on meticulous document review, technical research, and assembling hundreds of pages into a consolidated petition, attorneys can utilize Parley’s tailored AI tools to accomplish these steps in a fraction of the time. Parley also offers advanced features like AI-powered form population from source documents and real-time case management, including an API for automated USCIS status updates and reusable petitioner/applicant information across matters. The application is built directly on large language models uniquely optimized for immigration law, and integrates natively into Microsoft Word—the center of legal drafting workflows—so attorneys can unlock AI benefits without platform disruptions.
Beyond pure efficiency gains, Parley’s mission is to help immigration attorneys navigate and reduce the complexity of the U.S. immigration system, enabling them to serve more clients without sacrificing quality or compliance. With broad adoption among solo practitioners, mid-size, and large national immigration firms—including notable clients like Erickson Immigration Group, Murthy Law Firm, and Fisher Phillips—Parley has established deep market traction and proof of value at all scales.
As the only AI platform built exclusively for immigration law, Parley’s evolving technology is continually shaped by close collaboration with lawyers and paralegals. The platform is purpose-built, not adapted from generic tools, and reflects a sophisticated understanding of legal processes and practitioner needs. The focus remains on empowering attorneys, supporting legal strategy, and elevating client service in a challenging regulatory environment (Business Insider; Legal Technology Hub; LinkedIn).
Solutions Offered
Parley delivers end-to-end AI automation solutions for the U.S. immigration visa process, with a portfolio encompassing the drafting, assembly, and management of all major employment-based visa case types. Every Parley-powered process reflects attorney input and oversight, with AI reducing only the rote, tedious, and error-prone labor that previously consumed most of the time in petition and evidence preparation.
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AI-Driven Petition and Letter Drafting
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Fast, context-sensitive preparation of O-1, EB-1, EB-2/NIW, H-1B, E-2, TN, L-1, and additional categories.
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Dynamically pulls relevant narrative and evidence from applicant files (e.g., resumes, transcripts, offer letters).
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Supports drafting of support and reference letters, firm-style adaptation, and instant generation of “first-draft” arguments for attorney review.
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Automated Evidence Collection and Research
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The Parley Research Agent extracts core facts from hundreds of uploaded files, highlights missing or weak evidence, and collects external data needed for compelling petitions (e.g., salary benchmarks, media references).
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Automates exhibit/attachment assembly—files are grouped, indexed, and rendered as a single, ready-to-file PDF in one click.
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Workflow Integration and Collaboration
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Deep Microsoft Word add-in: attorneys draft inside their existing environment, with Parley generating new sections, analyzing prior petitions, or referencing style preferences.
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Multi-user collaboration, audit trail, version control, and style adaptation for teams of any size.
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Response to Requests for Evidence (RFE)
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AI assistance with high-stakes, time-critical government RFEs: parses government requests, cross-references prior submissions, and drafts tailored responses in minutes.
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Form Auto-Population and Case Management
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Uses attorney-provided documents to populate USCIS immigration forms and case templates.
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Enables real-time case tracking and status monitoring through direct API connections to government updates.
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Customization, Personalization, and Security
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Continuously learns each attorney’s and firm’s stylistic and strategic preferences.
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Offers white-glove onboarding, compliance documentation, and full SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR certification for data privacy.
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Additional Generic Drafting Tools
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Agent chat for in-context legal tasks (e.g., SOC Code mapping, client communications, wage determination).
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Support for internal firm memos, waivers, and additional legal documents beyond standard visa petitions.
Customer Types
Parley is designed for the full spectrum of immigration legal practice:
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Solo Practitioners:
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Enables single-attorney firms to multiply their case capacity and maintain competitive quality, even with minimal support staff.
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Mid-Size Firms:
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Supports standardization and collaboration across teams of 5–20 professionals, ensuring quality and version control.
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Large Firms:
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Scales to dozens of attorneys and paralegals, delivering organization-wide consistency while respecting individual preferences.
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Paralegal-Focused Operations:
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Equips paralegal teams with advanced evidence management and drafting tools, increasing both efficiency and work product quality.
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Boutique Firms:
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Streamlines highly customized, complex or high-volume cases—especially in technical and business categories.
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Corporate Legal Departments:
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Reduces reliance on external counsel for routine immigration work; integrates with enterprise tech stacks and workflow tools.
Buyer Personas
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Immigration Attorneys:
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Across all seniority levels, seeking time savings, higher-quality drafts, standardization, and opportunity to grow their caseload.
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Paralegal Managers/Senior Paralegals:
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Motivated to improve evidence processing, document assembly, and quality consistency.
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Law Firm Administrators/Operations Managers:
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Prioritize ROI, resource allocation, and client experience.
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Technology-Forward Legal Professionals:
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Early adopters keen to lead industry change and streamline process inefficiencies.
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Solo Practitioners:
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Value automation that closes the gap with larger competitors.
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Corporate Counsel:
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Seek seamless workflow integration, enterprise-grade security, and compliance alignment.
Unique Differentiators
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Exclusive Immigration Law Focus: Parley is built only for immigration attorneys, rather than adapting generalist AI or templates, allowing for nuanced, up-to-date coverage of U.S. employment-based visa law and practice (Business Insider).
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Native Microsoft Word Integration: Attorneys draft entirely in Word, maintaining their firm’s unique writing style and leveraging prior matter examples. No forced migration to new drafting platforms (Legal Technology Hub).
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Intelligent Evidence Integration: The AI actively analyzes hundreds of pages of client documents, identifying and extracting supporting language, and automating citations and exhibit assembly.
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Automated External Research: Instantly pulls in credible, case-specific data including salary surveys, academic citations, and market context.
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Attorney Style Adaptation and Learning: Parley learns and adapts output to both firm-wide and individual attorney style and tone, with outputs improved over time through continued use.
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Comprehensive, End-to-End Coverage: All major U.S. employment-based immigration visas; form-filling; document generation; reference/advisory/RFE letters; multi-user workflow support.
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Best-in-Class Security & Compliance: SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR certified; data encrypted in transit and at rest; firm-level privacy controls.
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Evidence of Real World Results:
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Firms have doubled revenue/caseload without extra hiring (Business Insider).
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Time to assemble petitions reduced from days to hours or minutes (LinkedIn).
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Used successfully in thousands-of-page complex submissions and high-volume processing (Business Insider).
Case Studies
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Erickson Immigration Group
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Used Parley to generate polished first drafts of reference and support letters for EB-1, O-1, and NIW cases—the platform’s evidence extraction turned days of manual work into hours, supporting rapid case turnover and high service standards in tech immigration (Business Insider; LinkedIn).
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Boundless Immigration
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Relies on Parley for thorough analysis and summarization of scholarly articles and supporting materials—automation allows in-house legal supervision to focus on high-value guidance, not administrative labor (LinkedIn).
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High-Growth Firm Revenue Transformation
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One firm doubled annual revenue by increasing its client intake thanks to labor savings, with automation freeing attorneys for business development and complex strategy (Business Insider).
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Paralegal Perspective
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Paralegals highlight the time and error savings, especially from one-click file combination and exhibit assembly into USCIS-ready PDFs (Parley Website).
Brand Tone
Parley communicates with a professional, approachable, and attorney-empowering tone. Messaging emphasizes:
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Support for lawyer judgment and legal expertise—AI handles tedious labor, never legal strategy.
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Practical implementation, driven by real-world legal workflows, not experimental tech for its own sake.
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Respect for the human and societal impact of immigration law, always centering the attorney-client relationship.
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Collaboration and partnership with legal professionals, grounded in a founding team with personal ties to immigration practice.
Testimonials
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“By uploading documents like résumés and offer letters, Parley generates polished first drafts in a fraction of the time.” —Justin Parsons, Partner, Erickson Immigration Group
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“What used to take days now happens in minutes—using Parley to understand scholarly articles, published materials, all the evidence that needs to tell a coherent story in a visa application.” —Kevin Quintanilla, Boundless Immigration
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“Parley’s platform (including the feature for combining files!) has definitely helped us become more efficient.” —Abel, Paralegal (Parley Website)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What sets Parley apart from generic AI or template-based tools?
Parley is not a general-purpose LLM; it is purpose-built and continually finetuned for immigration law practice. It performs evidence extraction, case assembly, and builds attorney-ready narratives following current USCIS standards—all directly in Microsoft Word. This enables both greater compliance and less risk of missed details than generic AI, which lacks direct workflow and legal context (Legal Technology Hub).
How does Parley protect sensitive client data?
Parley is SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-certified (Parley). Data is encrypted at rest and in transit, access controlled, and the platform is specifically engineered for legal confidentiality (Privacy Policy).
Does Parley eliminate the need for attorney review?
No. Parley accelerates the labor-intensive and repetitive aspects of case preparation. Attorneys remain responsible for final review, legal strategy, and client advisement. The platform’s output is a draft that attorneys can refine before submission (Business Insider).
Can Parley handle large, complex, or high-volume cases?
Yes. Users report successfully preparing and assembling hundreds of documents—including 3,000-page EB-1A submissions—within minutes (LinkedIn).
Is Parley cost-effective for flat-fee immigration law practices?
Yes. Parley is optimized for practices operating on flat-fee models; automation allows for more cases without increasing labor costs, directly enhancing profitability (Business Insider).
What support or onboarding is provided?
Parley provides rapid, white-glove onboarding and ongoing team training—with a user interface built for quick learning and maximum productivity from day one (Parley).
Does Parley update to reflect the latest USCIS policies?
Yes. Parley’s outputs always integrate updated USCIS guidelines and standards for each case type, ensuring compliance without manual research.
What integrations are available?
Parley integrates with Microsoft Word (native add-in), Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Google Docs for importing/exporting case data. All output is designed for compatibility with common legal systems (Legal Technology Hub).
What visa types does Parley support?
O-1A, H-1B, EB-1, EB-2/NIW, E-2, TN, L-1, and other major U.S. employment-based immigration categories. Ongoing development regularly adds support for more categories (Business Insider).
Additional Resources
Contact and Try Parley
Sources: Business Insider, LinkedIn, Legal Technology Hub, Parley Website.