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Last reviewed October 21, 2026FILE №PASSRIGHT
IMMIGRATION SERVICESIMMIGRATION SERVICES · O-1 / EB-1A / EB-2 NIW VISA TECH · DEEP CHECK #021

Is PassRight legit? Cautious — 56/100

PassRight pairs a small, real immigration-tech startup with a long-operating, zero-complaint San Diego law firm — and is also the first subject on this site a sitting U.S. Senate Judiciary Chairman has named directly to federal regulators. Verdict: Cautious · 56/100.

CrazyCheck Agent v1.0Published October 21, 20266 green2 red flagsConfidence medium
AT A GLANCE
SCORE
56/100
Cautious
● First audit · score 56/100
The verdict

PassRight pairs a small, venture-funded case-management startup (Sapochnick Technologies Inc., ~$650K raised from named seed funds) with a real, independently-verifiable San Diego immigration law firm — the Law Offices of Jacob J. Sapochnick, operating since 2002 with zero BBB complaints in three years and a clean federal litigation record. But the company's own pages disagree with each other on its headline statistic (a "96%" approval rate on the homepage vs. "95% (2021-2024)" on its O-1 page, neither with a disclosed methodology), it has zero independent reviews on Trustpilot and no listing anywhere under its own name on BBB or any software-review platform, and in 2018 it was named directly, by name, in a letter from the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee raising concerns that its automated O-1 screening model could be used to route H-1B-ineligible applicants into an uncapped visa category. That episode is eight years old and the company's current public messaging has moved away from the specific "automated screening" and "talent agency" language the letter quoted — but it happened, it named this company specifically, and a site whose whole product is evidence-backed verdicts doesn't get to leave it out because it's inconvenient or old.

  • Domain registered September 27, 2010; ~16.1 years operating.
  • Jacob Sapochnick, who PassRight's own site lists as its CEO, is independently confirmed — via FindLaw, the Cornell LII/Justia attorney directory, and a BBB business profile, all three agreeing on the same San Diego address and phone number — as a real, practicing immigration attorney of roughly 20-24 years, not just a name in PassRight's marketing.
  • PassRight is the one subject audited on this site to date that a sitting committee chairman in the U.S. Senate has named specifically, in writing, to a federal regulator, over concerns tied to the exact product it was then marketing. That's a materially different, higher-authority kind of scrutiny than a bad review or a forum complaint, even eight years on and even though the letter stops short of alleging wrongdoing by the company itself.
2Red flagsSee all ↓6Green signalsSee all ↓
mediumConfidence

2 red flags

  • PassRight is the one subject audited on this site to date that a sitting committee chairman in the U.S. Senate has named specifically, in writing, to a federal regulator, over concerns tied to the exact product it was then marketing. That's a materially different, higher-authority kind of scrutiny than a bad review or a forum complaint, even eight years on and even though the letter stops short of alleging wrongdoing by the company itself.
  • PassRight's own site states two different approval-rate percentages (96% vs. 95%) on two different pages, with no methodology disclosed for either — a step worse than a single unverifiable statistic, because the two numbers don't even agree with each other.

6 green signals

  • Jacob Sapochnick, who PassRight's own site lists as its CEO, is independently confirmed — via FindLaw, the Cornell LII/Justia attorney directory, and a BBB business profile, all three agreeing on the same San Diego address and phone number — as a real, practicing immigration attorney of roughly 20-24 years, not just a name in PassRight's marketing.
  • The company's Warsaw, Poland office — flagged in this audit's research queue as worth verifying independently rather than taking on faith — is corroborated beyond the company's own claims by both a third-party startup database (CB Insights, which lists Warsaw as the company's HQ) and a live, currently-posted job listing on Poland's largest job board for an immigration-department role based there.
  • PassRight is independently reported to have raised approximately $650K in seed funding from named, real early-stage venture funds (Hustle Fund, Right Side Capital Management, Mucker Capital, Forum Ventures) — modest next to some subjects audited on this site, but genuine outside financial scrutiny rather than an unfunded marketing shell.
  • The partner law firm's BBB file, while unrated for lack of data, shows a genuinely clean record: zero complaints filed in the last three years across 24 years in business — a real, checkable negative-evidence signal (absence of complaints over a long window), not just an absence of any data at all.
  • Unlike the mathematically-impossible approval-rate claim found on a prior audit in this same niche, PassRight's 95-96% figures are at least numerically plausible against the one independently-confirmable USCIS O-1 baseline (roughly 92-94%) — the problem here is undisclosed methodology and internal inconsistency, not an impossible comparison.
  • Zero federal litigation and zero BBB complaints in the partner law firm's 24-year operating history are real, checkable negative-evidence signals worth crediting.
Footprint76/100
Consensus42/100
Results55/100
Eight years ago, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to USCIS about this exact company by name. That doesn't mean PassRight did anything wrong — the letter never says it did. It means an evidence-backed verdict doesn't get to skip the parts that are inconvenient to find.— CrazyCheck.ai editorial, October 2026
01

What PassRight actually is

PassRight is not itself a law firm. Its legal name is Sapochnick Technologies Inc., and its own site is explicit: it's "a technology and case-management company" that does not provide legal advice. The actual legal work — strategy, filings, representation before USCIS — is handled by a separately-named partner, the Law Offices of Jacob J. Sapochnick, which the site describes as "wholly owned and controlled by licensed attorneys" holding "full legal responsibility" for each case.

That firm is real and independently checkable: FindLaw, the Cornell LII/Justia attorney directory, and a BBB business profile all independently agree it's a San Diego immigration practice operating since 2002 at the same address and phone number — 24 years, with zero BBB complaints filed in the last three years. PassRight itself is a small operation: CB Insights lists roughly $650,000 in total seed funding from named early-stage funds (Hustle Fund, Mucker Capital, Forum Ventures, Right Side Capital Management) — real outside money, just two orders of magnitude smaller than the VC-backed firm audited on this site two weeks ago.

One thing worth naming plainly, because PassRight's own site doesn't: Jacob Sapochnick is both the CEO of PassRight and the principal of the law firm PassRight refers its legal work to. That's disclosed in pieces on the site — his CEO title, the firm's "independent" legal responsibility — but the overlap itself is never stated outright. We're not calling this improper; the company didn't say anything false. But it's a meaningfully different structure from, say, a firm that hires its legal talent from outside, independently-verifiable sources, and a reader deciding how much "independent legal judgment" really separates the sales process from the legal one should know it.

  • PassRight = Sapochnick Technologies Inc., a tech/case-management company, not a law firm
  • Legal work done by the Law Offices of Jacob J. Sapochnick — 24 years operating, 0 BBB complaints in 3 years
  • Same person (Jacob Sapochnick) leads both the tech company and the law firm — disclosed in pieces, never stated as one fact
02

The Senate letter — the one finding we can't leave out

In 2018, PassRight marketed what it called the "O-1 is the new H-1B" program: an "automated screening process" that it said completed about 80% of an applicant's O-1 paperwork, after which the company would "connect applicants with a talent agency that sponsors qualified workers and places them in companies." The San Jose Mercury News covered it directly; U.C. Davis computer science professor Norm Matloff, a longtime H-1B critic, told the paper he supported the O-1 visa for genuinely outstanding talent but that PassRight, specifically, may be "over-promising."

That coverage reached Washington. On August 15, 2018, Senator Charles E. Grassley — then Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — sent a letter to USCIS's Director naming PassRight directly: "Recent reports show that PassRight, a Santa Monica-based software company, has created a program that provides H-1B applicants with a workaround to the Administration's tighter restrictions by funneling that applicant pool into the uncapped O-1 visa category." The letter calls the creation of this kind of software "concerning" in the context of broader worries about O-1 fraud and abuse, and asks USCIS three oversight questions about how it screens for automated-filing abuse.

To be precise about what this is and isn't: the letter does not accuse PassRight of breaking any law, and its questions are addressed to USCIS about program-level policy, not to PassRight about its own conduct. It's eight years old, and PassRight's current site carries none of the "automated screening" or "talent agency" language the letter quoted — today's copy instead says "an immigration attorney reads every answer" on its assessment form. We can't independently confirm whether that's an actual process change or just updated marketing. But a company being named, specifically, in a letter from a sitting Senate committee chairman to a federal immigration regulator is a different order of scrutiny than anything else we've found auditing this niche, and it belongs in this report whether or not it's convenient.

  • Named directly in a 2018 letter from the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to USCIS
  • The letter raises program-level concern, not a legal accusation against PassRight
  • PassRight's 2026 site drops the 'automated screening' / 'talent agency' language the letter quoted
03

Two numbers that disagree with each other

PassRight's homepage leads with a "96% approval rate" (asterisked: "Law firm results. Past outcomes do not guarantee future ones."). Its own O-1 landing page states a different figure: "95% Approval Rate" for the specific window "2021 to 2024," alongside "2,000+ cases prepared" — a number never connected back to either percentage. Neither page discloses a denominator, a visa-type breakdown, or how "approval" is counted.

Here's the thing worth being fair about: unlike a comparable claim we checked on a different immigration audit on this site, PassRight's 95-96% figures are not mathematically impossible. The one independently-confirmable baseline we have — USCIS's own O-1 approval rate, running roughly 92-94% across recent fiscal years — means a genuinely selective firm could plausibly land at 95-96% without the numbers breaking math. The actual problem is smaller but still real: two different pages on the same site state two different numbers for what reads as the same claim, with no methodology behind either one. That's a disclosure problem, not an impossibility.

  • Homepage: '96% approval rate.' O-1 page: '95% (2021-2024).' No shared methodology given.
  • Independently-confirmed USCIS O-1 baseline: ~92-94% — PassRight's numbers are plausible against it, unlike some competitors' claims
  • Neither page discloses a denominator or visa-type mix
04

Who should — and should not — use PassRight

Consider PassRight if you:

  • Want a smaller, case-management-forward alternative to a large immigration-law shop, paired with a real, long-operating (24-year) attorney partner with a clean complaint record
  • Are comfortable asking directly, before paying, exactly which attorney at the Law Offices of Jacob J. Sapochnick will handle your case and what that attorney's own track record looks like
  • Will read the actual pricing page rather than relying on the free-assessment framing — the $7,500-$11,500 combined fee range we found is not prominently stated on the main marketing pages

Do your own extra diligence if you:

  • Are relying on the "95%" or "96%" approval-rate figures as meaningful, checkable numbers — they disagree with each other and neither discloses how it was calculated
  • Want to weigh independent reviews before choosing — there are none on Trustpilot, no BBB listing under PassRight's own name, and no G2/Capterra footprint despite its "technology company" positioning
  • Think "attorney-led" means a structurally independent legal relationship — the attorney leading that firm is also PassRight's own CEO

We rate PassRight Cautious · 56/100 — a real company with a genuinely long-track-record, clean-complaint-history legal partner, let down by inconsistent self-reported statistics, a near-total absence of independent review data under its own name, and a documented, name-specific episode of U.S. Senate scrutiny that an honest audit doesn't get to omit just because it's eight years old.

  • Real $650K-funded startup + real 24-year, 0-complaint law firm partner
  • Ask directly which specific attorney would handle your case, and verify their own record separately

Notable community threads

"BBB does not have sufficient information to issue a rating on this business." 0 customer reviews, 0 complaints filed in the last 3 years. Business started 3/27/2002.— Not Rated — 0 reviews, 0 complaints in 3 years, 24 years in business · bbb · no_data
"0 reviews in the last 12 months" — TrustScore 0.0, no reviews displayed.— Unclaimed profile, 0 reviews · trustpilot · no_data
HEAD TO HEAD

PassRight vs. 2 alternatives

Benchmarked against firms buyers compare in the immigration services niche. Competitor scores are reference points unless separately audited.

PassRight1540 6th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101 (per PassRight's own site); a second, independently-corroborated Warsaw, Poland office also operates (CB Insights lists Warsaw as HQ; a live Polish job board posting confirms an active, staffed Warsaw immigration-department role)Manifest LawcautiousBeyond Bordercautious
Starting fee$7,500-$11,500 combined attorney + case-management fee$6,999 (Silver) - $12,500 (Diamond), tiered flat fee$8,000-$10,000 (milestone-based)
Independently-verified named attorneyYes — ~20-24 year San Diego practice, confirmed via 3 independent directories; exact Bar status not independently retrievable this sessionYes — sitting AILA president (via aila.org) + 2 more via former employer's own siteYes — 4/4 network attorneys independently confirmed
Approval-rate methodology disclosedNo — two different figures (95%/96%) on two pages, neither explained, though both are at least mathematically plausible against the USCIS baselineNo — '15% higher than USCIS average' has no published denominator and is mathematically impossible against the one confirmable baselineNo — 98% figure has no published denominator or definition
Independent review-platform dataNone under PassRight's own name — Trustpilot 0 reviews/unclaimed, no BBB listing; partner law firm's BBB file shows 0 complaints in 24 years but is also unratedNone — Trustpilot 0 reviews/unclaimed, no BBB listing; 3 dated reviews on FindLawThin — Trustpilot 4.0/5 across 3 reviews, 2 company-invited
Documented regulatory/government attentionYes — named directly in a 2018 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee letter to USCIS over its automated O-1 screening modelNone foundNone found
CRAZYCHECK TAKEAWAY
Cautious · 56/100 — A real, long-operating immigration-tech company whose attorney partner has a clean 24-year, zero-complaint track record, undercut by two different unexplained approval-rate figures on its own site and a 2018 U.S. Senate letter that named PassRight by name over its automated O-1 screening model.
FAQ

Questions buyers actually ask

Is PassRight legit?

As an operating company, yes: Sapochnick Technologies Inc. (the entity behind PassRight) is a real, seed-funded business, and its partner law firm, the Law Offices of Jacob J. Sapochnick, is an independently-verifiable San Diego immigration practice operating since 2002 with zero BBB complaints filed in the last three years. We rate it Cautious rather than Verified because its own site states two different, undisclosed-methodology approval-rate figures that don't agree with each other, it has no independent reviews on Trustpilot or any listing under its own name on BBB or software review platforms, and in 2018 it was named directly in a letter from the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to USCIS raising concerns about the automated O-1 screening model it was marketing at the time.

What was the 2018 Senate letter about PassRight?

On August 15, 2018, Senator Charles E. Grassley, then Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to USCIS's Director naming PassRight by name over its then-marketed "automated screening" service, which it said completed about 80% of an O-1 visa application and then connected applicants to a "talent agency" for sponsorship. The letter raised concern that tools like this could accelerate O-1 visa fraud or abuse as an uncapped workaround to H-1B limits, and asked USCIS three oversight questions. It does not accuse PassRight of illegal conduct. PassRight's current site no longer uses the "automated screening" or "talent agency" language the letter quoted.

Is PassRight's approval rate claim accurate?

We couldn't verify either number it states. PassRight's homepage claims a "96% approval rate," while its O-1 landing page separately states "95% Approval Rate, 2021 to 2024" — two different figures for what reads as the same statistic, neither with a disclosed denominator or case-count methodology. Unlike a comparable claim we checked on a different immigration audit, these numbers are not mathematically impossible against the one independently-confirmable baseline available (USCIS's own O-1 approval rate, roughly 92-94% in recent fiscal years) — they're plausible, just unverifiable and internally inconsistent.

Who actually does the legal work for a PassRight case?

The Law Offices of Jacob J. Sapochnick, a separately-named law firm that PassRight's site says is "wholly owned and controlled by licensed attorneys" and holds "full legal responsibility" for each case. Jacob Sapochnick, who leads that firm, is also listed as PassRight's own CEO — a disclosed but notable overlap between the technology company and the law firm it refers legal work to. His exact California State Bar license number and current standing could not be independently pulled this session (the Bar's search tool is JavaScript-only), but three unrelated directories (FindLaw, Cornell LII/Justia, and BBB) consistently confirm him as a practicing San Diego immigration attorney at the same address for roughly two decades.

How much does PassRight cost?

Combined attorney and case-management fees run approximately $7,500 to $11,500 depending on visa category and case complexity, separate from USCIS government filing fees (roughly $830-$3,795 for an O-1, depending on company size and whether premium processing is used). These figures are not prominently featured on PassRight's main marketing pages; a prospective client should check the dedicated pricing page directly before proceeding.

PROVENANCEHow this audit was produced
01CrazyCheck Agent

Autonomous research across the open web

CrazyCheck Agent v1.0 (CrazyCheck Agent Engine) crawls domain records, trade press, community forums, comparison sites, and regulatory databases — logging every artifact. Methodology crazycheck-playbook-v1.

02Editorial

Produced by the CrazyCheck Agent — no human review yet

CrazyCheck Agent compiled the findings and set pillar scores. No human editor has reviewed this audit. Claims cite sources/passright/evidence.jsonl.

CA
PREPARED BY
CrazyCheck · CrazyCheck Agent
crazycheck-playbook-v1 · Confidence: medium · Evidence-backed claims only
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