VeloVisa frequently asked questions
What clubs and athletic departments ask about VeloVisa, sports immigration and player travel readiness.
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The platform
What is VeloVisa?
VeloVisa is the immigration and athlete compliance platform for professional and college sports organizations. It answers one question for every player, every morning: is this player legally able to travel and work right now, and if not, what is the next action? Clubs use VeloVisa to capture player documents once, prepare filings such as I-129 petitions and DS-160 visa applications, track every player from signing day to the border, and prove compliance to the front office, the league and auditors. It replaces spreadsheets, email chains and status calls with outside counsel.
Which leagues and teams use VeloVisa?
VeloVisa is built for professional clubs in Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer and the NBA. It covers players and staff at every level of an organization, from Dominican Republic academies and minor league affiliates to the major league roster. Sport-specific detail is on the pro baseball, pro hockey, pro soccer and pro basketball pages.
Who inside a club uses VeloVisa?
Every department that touches a player's status works from the same record in VeloVisa. Player Operations and the immigration coordinator run cases, petitions and the daily next step. Team Travel checks readiness and produces travel papers for every trip. HR and Payroll handle I-9s and work authorization. Legal and outside counsel get G-28s, petition packets and the audit trail. The Front Office sees whether a player can play on Tuesday on one screen. The league office sees readiness counts across clubs, never player data. Each role sees only what it needs.
How is VeloVisa different from an immigration law firm or a case management tool?
Law firms and generic immigration case management tools each own one stage, usually the petition. VeloVisa owns the whole timeline for the team: signing, petition, consulate, border entry, the season, road trips and trades, and renewals. One data record feeds every stage, so a passport uploaded once fills the I-129 petition, the DS-160, the I-9 and the travel papers, and also decides whether the player is ready to travel.
What's in the platform
What products are in the VeloVisa platform?
VeloVisa has four products on one platform. Player Locker stores and reads every player's identity and immigration documents. Petitions & Forms prepares filings from that data instead of retyping it. Lineup computes daily travel readiness and opens the next task automatically. Compliance & Reporting produces the reports the front office, travel staff, legal and auditors ask for. iOS and Android apps, single sign-on, security and integrations sit underneath all four. The VeloVisa platform overview shows how they fit together.
What is Player Locker?
Player Locker is VeloVisa's secure document store and data capture system, the single source of truth for each player's identity and immigration documents. It reads about 15 document types with OCR and field extraction, including passports, visas, I-94 records, I-797 approval notices, green cards, EADs, Social Security cards, I-20s, Canadian eTAs and TRVs, contracts and passport photos. Staff confirm extracted data in a verification queue, and only verified documents count toward readiness. Documents are encrypted, isolated by organization, and every view is audited.
What does Petitions & Forms prepare?
Petitions & Forms fills immigration forms from Player Locker data instead of retyping them. It prepares I-129 petitions with I-907 premium processing requests and G-1450 card payment forms, generates petition packets and manages beneficiaries at the petition level. It also handles G-28 notices of representation with ink, digital or mobile signature; DS-160 visa applications, which the VeloVisa browser extension auto-fills on the State Department site; I-9 employment eligibility verification; passport applications; and Brazilian visa applications.
What is Lineup?
Lineup is VeloVisa's travel readiness engine. Every player shows one of three statuses, READY, AR travel only, or NEEDS ACTION, with the exact next step. Status is computed from verified documents and the rules that govern travel: the I-94 record, not the visa stamp, governs a player's authorized stay; passport validity gates travel; and automatic visa revalidation covers short trips to Canada and Mexico. Lineup opens a case when a need appears, closes it when the evidence arrives, checks consular appointments and the game schedule against expiry dates, and re-checks every player in a sweep every morning.
What reports does Compliance & Reporting include?
Compliance & Reporting covers what the front office, travel staff, legal and auditors ask for on demand: I-94 Status (who is in status and until when), Travel Papers (one-click, bulk, bilingual travel document packets per player), Immigration Papers by status category, Canadian Travel Readiness (who can cross into Canada on the next trip), Data Integrity (missing or conflicting player data, flagged early), G-28 Representation (who represents whom and what is signed) and the Trade Archive of immigration records for traded players.
Can a league office use VeloVisa?
Yes. League Rollup gives a league office aggregate travel readiness across its member clubs. It shows counts only and never exposes individual player data, so each club's records stay private to that club.
What is VeloVisa SafeSport?
VeloVisa SafeSport is an athlete safeguarding compliance product for MLS clubs and academies, built on the roster clubs already keep in VeloVisa. It maintains the SafeSport roster, checks each roster upload for adds, remains and drops, sends intro emails with bounce handling, produces a compliance report, and files each certificate to the player's Locker.
Visas, I-94s & border crossings
What visa types and immigration filings does VeloVisa handle?
VeloVisa manages the full immigration lifecycle for P-1A athletes, including change-of-employer petitions after a trade, and tracks players who are US citizens, permanent residents or EAD holders. The filings it prepares or tracks include the I-129 petition, I-907 premium processing, G-1450, G-28, DS-160, I-9, US passport applications and Brazilian visa applications, plus I-94 monitoring and visa stamp renewals.
How does VeloVisa track work authorization and I-94 status?
VeloVisa retrieves and monitors each player's I-94 record and admit-until date automatically, alongside visa stamp and passport expiration dates. A sweep every morning re-checks every player, opens renewal tasks before anything lapses, and sends alerts through a daily digest, push, email, Slack, SMS or WhatsApp. Staff see who can play, who can travel and who needs action before it becomes an emergency.
What is the difference between a visa stamp and an I-94?
A visa stamp in the passport lets a player request entry at a US port of entry; it does not set how long the player may stay. The I-94 record, created by US Customs and Border Protection at entry, carries the admit-until date that governs authorized stay. A player can remain in status with an expired visa stamp as long as the I-94 is valid, but usually needs a new stamp to re-enter after international travel. VeloVisa tracks both dates separately for this reason.
Can a player with an expired visa stamp travel to Canada for road games?
Often, yes, through automatic visa revalidation. Under this rule, many nonimmigrants with an unexpired I-94 and an expired visa stamp can return to the United States after a trip of 30 days or less to Canada or Mexico without getting a new stamp. There are exceptions, including players who apply for a new visa during the trip and nationals of countries the US designates as state sponsors of terrorism. VeloVisa marks eligible players AR travel only, and Canadian Travel Readiness separately checks Canadian entry documents such as the eTA or TRV.
What happens when there's a petition issue or a request for evidence (RFE)?
VeloVisa tracks every case in real time. When an RFE or other petition issue arises, the right people are alerted immediately and can coordinate a response with counsel, including VeloVisa's law firm partners. No more discovering a problem the week before a road trip.
What happens to immigration records when a player is traded?
Change-of-employer petitions are a standard VeloVisa case type, so the work a trade triggers is tracked like any other case. The club's immigration records for traded players are kept in the Trade Archive, so history is never lost when a player leaves the roster.
Does VeloVisa replace our immigration attorney?
No. VeloVisa is software, not a law firm, and does not give legal advice. It works alongside your counsel: attorneys get G-28s, petition packets and the audit trail without chasing the club for documents. The platform encodes 20+ years of sports immigration experience, and law firm partners are available for complex or edge cases.
How it works
How does roster data stay current in VeloVisa?
For MLB clubs, VeloVisa syncs with EBIS automatically every day and detects adds, drops and player movement. Clubs in other leagues load and update rosters by bulk upload. Either way, staff always see a current roster with each player's immigration status.
How do player documents get into VeloVisa?
Players and staff provide documents once, through upload or the mobile app, and Player Locker extracts the data so it flows to every form the organization needs. Each team also gets its own USCIS email address that captures receipt and approval notices automatically. No chasing players for the same paperwork twice.
Does VeloVisa have a mobile app?
Yes. VeloVisa has iOS and Android apps for club staff. They show readiness, notifications and documents, and let staff capture and send G-28 signatures from the road.
What does VeloVisa integrate with?
VeloVisa integrates with EBIS for MLB roster data, Okta and Microsoft Entra ID for single sign-on, Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Twilio for SMS and WhatsApp notifications.
Can different departments access VeloVisa with different permissions?
Yes. Role-based access controls give each department exactly the visibility it needs. Player Operations sees everything. Legal gets compliance reports and the audit trail. Team Travel gets readiness status. Every action is logged in an append-only audit trail, and data retention controls are built in.
Implementation
How long does it take to get up and running?
Five days from contract to fully operational. That covers league data integration, single sign-on setup, and migrating existing documents and case history. Guided product tours and user guides get staff working without a multi-month rollout or disruption to the season.
Can we bring over our existing case files and documents?
Yes. During onboarding, existing documents and case history are migrated into VeloVisa. Nothing gets left behind, and your team starts with a complete picture from day one.
How is VeloVisa priced?
Pricing is standardized by league: every club in the same league pays the same rate. Request a demo for specific pricing and to see how VeloVisa fits your organization.
Trust & compliance
Who owns the player data in VeloVisa?
Your organization and your league do. VeloVisa is a service provider and data processor: it stores and processes player information solely to deliver immigration and travel authorization services on your behalf. VeloVisa never sells player data and never shares it with third parties. This is no different from the personal information clubs already give airlines, hotels and government agencies every time the team travels.
How does VeloVisa protect sensitive player data?
VeloVisa holds a SOC 2 Type II report, audited three years running. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, each organization's data is strictly isolated from every other tenant, and staff sign in through Okta or Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on with multi-factor authentication. Role-based access limits who sees sensitive information, and an append-only audit trail records who accessed what and when. Details are in the VeloVisa Trust Center.
Can our outside immigration counsel work in VeloVisa?
Yes. The law firm that represents your club can be given a Cross-Organization Access Grant to your organization, so its attorneys can coordinate G-28 representation and immigration documents with your staff in one place instead of over email. A VeloVisa administrator makes each grant for one person and one organization, and records who granted it and when. Your counsel keeps their own identity and role and sees only the features enabled for your organization. Your organization admins can review everyone with granted access on the Security tab, a grant can be revoked at any time with immediate effect, and every entry into and exit from your organization is recorded in the append-only audit trail.
What results do clubs see with VeloVisa?
Organizations using VeloVisa report an 83% reduction in immigration admin time, an 80%+ drop in premium processing dependence, and 100% work authorization compliance with automated I-94 tracking. That time goes back to scouting, player development and the work the front office was hired to do.