Formally

The platform serves three distinct user groups through one unified product: attorneys and law firms managing cases at scale, individuals navigating the visa application process, and employers sponsoring global hires. Formally's goal is to reduce the friction, opacity, and administrative overhead that has long made US immigration one of the most painful legal workflows in existence.

Before engaging BeeWeb, Formally already had a working web application — but the product needed an experienced engineering partner to close the gap between what existed and what the platform's ambitious, tri-sided user model demanded.

Several friction points were holding the product back:

🔹 The live chat — the primary real-time communication channel between attorneys and their clients — existed but was unreliable and outdated, failing the high-trust standard immigration law requires

🔹 AI-powered workflows had been introduced to the product but needed deeper engineering to become reliable, scalable, and genuinely useful across multiple user roles

🔹 Serving lawyers, individual applicants, and employers simultaneously created a complex, multi-role permission architecture that required disciplined technical implementation

🔹 Administrative workflows (reminders, scheduling, document collection) were partially manual, reducing the productivity gains AI was supposed to deliver

🔹 The platform needed to grow fast without accumulating technical debt — demanding clean architecture decisions alongside rapid feature delivery

Formally needed more than a dev shop. They needed an embedded engineering team that could take ownership, move in structured sprints, and build with scale in mind from day one.

Formally's core complexity is structural: it is a three-sided platform that must simultaneously serve attorneys managing legal cases, individuals navigating the visa system, and employers sponsoring global hires. Every feature decision carries implications for all three audiences.

The Live Chat Rebuild

The platform's existing chat feature was a liability, not an asset. It had been built incrementally and no longer met the real-time communication standards that attorneys and their clients depend on during time-sensitive immigration filings. BeeWeb's mandate was to take it apart completely — from UX through backend architecture — and rebuild it to production standard.

Multi-Role Architecture Complexity

A single codebase serving lawyers, individual applicants, and employer sponsors means role-based access control is not optional — it is foundational. Layer in attorney-firm hierarchies (teams, cases, associated employers) and the permission model becomes genuinely complex. Every new feature had to be designed with all three contexts in mind.

AI Workflow Integration

Formally's value proposition is built on AI — for guided onboarding, document collection, administrative automation, and natural language workflows. That meant AI couldn't be bolted on as a feature; it had to be woven into the product's core interactions across all three user journeys.

Distributed Team, Time-Sensitive Product

With US-based stakeholders and an Eastern European development team, time zone gaps created a real coordination risk — particularly when urgent technical questions arose mid-sprint. The team had to build communication processes that kept velocity high regardless of geography.

BeeWeb joined Formally as a dedicated product engineering team — not as a vendor fulfilling a spec, but as owners of a feature track within a live, growing platform.

The flagship deliverable was a complete rebuild of the live chat system. BeeWeb took it from concept to production: new UX/UI flows, real-time messaging architecture, and integration with the case and application context that makes attorney-client communication actionable rather than just transactional.

Beyond chat, BeeWeb engineered a suite of enhancements that deepened the platform's AI-powered core:

🔹 AI-assisted client onboarding that collects documents and information through natural language interactions — reducing the back-and-forth that previously consumed hours of attorney time per client

🔹 A multi-role dashboard system giving attorneys full visibility over their clients, cases, and employer relationships — and giving employers a consolidated view of all sponsored employee visa cases

🔹 Team management features allowing attorney firms to create teams, assign cases, and maintain clean data hierarchies across the organization

🔹 Administrative workflow automation — AI-driven reminders, scheduling, and task routing — that allows attorneys to focus on legal strategy rather than operational overhead

The coordination challenge was handled through disciplined async-first communication. By maintaining a detailed written record across Slack, Linear, and Git pull request comments, and by aligning on overlapping business hours for critical decisions, the team maintained consistent velocity across geographies.

This was an enhancement engagement, not a greenfield build. BeeWeb joined an existing product mid-flight, conducted a thorough assessment of the codebase and feature backlog, and established a structured development cadence that balanced speed with quality.

The team applied the Scrum methodology throughout the engagement. The project began on Jira and later migrated to Linear as the team matured and sought tighter workflow visibility and faster issue resolution. Daily internal syncs kept both full-stack developers aligned on priorities and blockers, while the dedicated Project Manager owned all client-facing communication, sprint reviews, and roadmap alignment.

Communication with Formally's stakeholders ran primarily through Slack and Linear, supplemented by Git pull request comments for technical decisions — creating a transparent, asynchronous record of every significant choice made throughout the engagement.

🔹 Real-Time Live Chat — Complete Rebuild

● Fully rebuilt from UX/UI design through to production deployment
● Real-time messaging between attorneys, applicants, and employer contacts
● Integrated within case and application workflows for contextual communication
● High-reliability architecture replacing a legacy system that no longer met product standards

🔹 AI-Powered Client Onboarding

● Collects required documents and information through AI-guided flows
● Natural language prompts guide applicants through complex immigration forms
● Reduces the administrative burden on attorneys during client intake
● Aligned with Formally's use of behavioral science in UX design to reduce applicant anxiety throughout the process

🔹 Attorney & Law Firm Dashboard

● Full client and case visibility for individual attorneys
● Add and manage clients, employers, and associated case data
● Scheduling, reminders, and workflow tools built into the dashboard interface
● Natural language AI handles routine administrative tasks automatically

🔹 Attorney Firm Team Management

● Create and organize legal teams within the firm
● Associate cases, clients, and employer relationships with the right teams
● Role-based data access ensuring appropriate visibility at every tier

🔹 Individual Applicant Portal

● Guided, step-by-step visa application collaboration with attorneys
● Simplified form-filling with AI assistance at each stage
● Direct, secure communication with legal counsel via the rebuilt live chat
● Case status visibility — eliminating the "black box" of traditional immigration workflows

🔹 Employer Immigration Dashboard

● Centralized management of all global hires and sponsored visa cases
● Attorney service integration directly within the employer interface
● Status tracking across all active employee immigration cases
● Real-time communication with immigration counsel via live chat

🔹 Administrative Workflow Automation

● AI-driven reminders and scheduling for both attorneys and clients
● Natural language interface for routine legal administration tasks
● Reduces operational overhead so attorneys focus on legal strategy

The outcome was a significantly more capable, production-ready platform — one that gave Formally the technical foundation to scale across all three of its user segments while staying true to the AI-first product vision.

Key outcomes:

🔹 Live chat system fully rebuilt — a previously unreliable feature replaced with a robust, real-time communication layer fit for high-stakes legal interactions

🔹 Expanded AI-powered workflows across onboarding, document handling, and administrative automation — making the platform's core value proposition tangible for all three user types

🔹 Multi-role architecture supporting attorneys, firms, individuals, and employers from a single, unified codebase — without fragmentation or permission debt

🔹 Improved development velocity through structured Scrum processes, modern tooling (Linear, Slack, Git), and a disciplined async communication culture that kept cross-timezone collaboration friction-free

🔹 A scalable, AI-ready product foundation positioned to expand into new visa categories, employer workflows, and advanced AI capabilities as Formally grows toward its stated goal of covering every aspect of immigration law

Formally remains an active, growing platform — and BeeWeb remains an active engineering partner within it.