Matt is passionate about crafting creative immigration strategies and programs for emerging venture-backed companies and entrepreneurs looking to build high-growth companies in the U.S. He is an entrepreneur himself, having started Meltzer Hellrung over 10 years ago with partner Matthew Hellrung.

Immigration can be challenging and complex for both HR leads and foreign nationals, especially when creating new enterprises and scaling for growth. Matt brings his expertise and diligent approach to leverage the varied immigration visa options available–and litigation when needed–to address challenges and help clients achieve their goals. 

Matt firmly believes that immigration can be a valuable strategic resource for companies in building their ideal workforces. Immigration is essential for attracting the best talent, creating diversity, and managing ever-more global workforces. In addition, a well-designed immigration program can promote stability and long-term retention with valuable employees by ensuring that these employees feel taken care of through their immigration journey.

Similarly, Matt is passionate about building the law firm of the future, driven to deliver exceptional service through both technology and incredible legal staff. Matt is working collaboratively with the leadership of the firm to build an organization that attorneys and staff want to work at for professional growth and the delivery of a phenomenal experience to clients and foreign national employees.

Matt advises companies regarding employee hiring and I-9 compliance, immigration policy, reorganizations and mergers, global immigration and expansion, and government inspections.

Matt has used a complete spectrum of immigration tools to help clients achieve their goals. Examples of Matt’s creative successes include:

• Pursuing a Schedule A Exceptional Ability green card for a talented individual when an EB-1A petition was not successful.
• Advised companies on how to create spin-off services companies for key employees to pursue E-2 visas
• Filed a National Interest Waiver petition for an entrepreneur
• Assisted E-2 entrepreneurs to navigate sales of their companies and maintain their visa status
• Filed an O-1 petition for a sales executive
• Pursued litigation to challenge the Trump administration on its implementation of the International Entrepreneur Rule. After a Federal Judge found in favor of that client, Matt submitted a parole application on behalf of the co-founder.
• Successfully litigated an egregious H-1B denial for a hardware engineer
• Successfully litigated the rejection of an H-1B cap petition. USCIS eventually accepted review of the petition and approved H-1B status for the beneficiary.

Matt routinely speaks publicly, including through the firm’s webinars, AILA conferences, and TechGC events. In addition, Matt was selected to participate in the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Emerging Leader Program for 2022-2023. Most recently recognized as one of Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Leaders in Accounting, Consulting & Law!

Matt earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from Boston College Law School.