When Britt Vergnolle and her husband, Ronald, formed BDV Solutions in 2011, they started the business from their family’s kitchen table.
Today, the Greenville-based organization has grown to be the largest agency focused on helping immigrants obtain work visas through the EB-3 unskilled visa program. Through this process, a foreign national must work in an entry-level position with a sponsoring employer to acquire a visa.
BDV Solutions helps foreign nationals navigate through the visa program and connect with U.S. companies hiring for entry-level jobs by providing consulting and case-management services.
“We spent really the first 10 years of this company not getting bigger, but getting better at what we do,” said CEO Britt Vergnolle. “So not to rush in anything — what made us better is learning from our mistakes and perfecting, and watching and looking at every little detail.”
This passion for helping immigrants reach their citizenship goal was passed down to Britt Vergnolle’s daughter, Davis, who serves as the company’s marketing director. She started working part time with the company by organizing paperwork while she was in high school.
“I’m just so proud of my parents and my mom for what they’ve done, and so I feel really honored to get to be a part of it,” Davis Vergnolle said.
Helping others
BDV Solutions has assisted more than 7,000 immigrants with work visas since its formation.
Britt Vergnolle explained that while every client is different, many already live or go to school in the U.S. and are getting work visas to stay.
“We always make sure they’re not just a receipt number or just a cog in the wheel going into the system. These are real people,” Britt Vergnolle said.
Clóris Junges, a former client and a program success account manager at BDV Solutions, said she has always admired the organization’s transparency to their clients. She now uses her past experience to help other immigrants navigate through the visa program.
“BDV is very good about putting themselves in someone’s position, but there’s something different when you have been there,” Junges said. “I can relate to them. It’s really helpful most of the time.”
Providing labor
The EB-3 unskilled visa works as a labor solution for many companies across the county.
Davis Vergnolle said the organization has built up a balanced supply of immigrant workers to help satisfy the demand for people in entry-level positions.
BDV Solutions has business sponsors in 38 states across various industries from food service to manufacturing.
One local business that sponsors EB-3 candidates is Table 301 Restaurant Group. Rachel Maurer, the special events manager at Table 301 restaurant Nose Dive, said she has been onboarding EB-3 workers at the restaurant since 2021.
“Having the consistency and the dedication of the EB-3 clients that come through here has been a tremendous help filling those spots that we couldn’t fill with our local job pool,” Maurer said.
Expanding services
To help grow their outreach, BDV Solutions obtained a private equity investment from New York-based Astara Capital Partners in 2021. The company also acquired Argo Visa, a Greenville-based visa-consultant company, in 2022.
Britt Vergnolle explained that BDV Solutions is now working to expand its services and help immigrants obtain green cards through other visa categories.
“I hope to be able to serve more foreign nationals and more employers with more of an array of different visa categories that they can benefit from to help employers to solve their labor needs,” Britt Vergnolle said, “and for foreign nationals to find that path through legal immigration to stay in the country that they love.”
