According to PYMNTS.com, Corpay Cross-Border Solutions launched USCIS Navigator on Monday, November 24th, creating an automated payment tool specifically for immigration law firms. This comes as a direct response to the recent ban on check payments for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services filings. The system integrates with law firm billing systems and automatically generates single-use virtual credit cards for each filing fee. It also auto-generates the required credit card authorization forms, eliminating manual check preparation and data entry. Each transaction processes through Corpay’s commercial card program with real-time updates as USCIS processes payments. Managing Director Anthony F. Loiacono Jr. said they built the tool based on immediate feedback from legal clients facing operational challenges.
The bigger government shift away from checks
Here’s the thing – this isn’t just about immigration payments. The government is systematically moving away from checks across all federal programs. PYMNTS noted last month that this shift is partly defensive – check fraud remains a massive headache. But it’s also about efficiency and cost savings. Reed Luhtanen from the U.S. Faster Payments Council told PYMNTS that “the vast majority of government payments already are done via electronic methods.” Now they’re finishing the job by shifting the last check-based disbursements to digital channels. And when government moves, adjacent sectors tend to follow.
Who wins and loses here?
Corpay clearly saw an opportunity and moved fast. They leveraged their existing relationships with legal clients to build something specifically for this pain point. But this creates ripple effects across the payment ecosystem. Manual payment processors and check printing services are obviously the losers. Meanwhile, digital payment providers and integration specialists stand to gain. The real winner might be efficiency itself – law firms get full visibility into matter-specific payments with real-time tracking. Basically, they’re replacing a clunky, fraud-prone process with something that actually makes sense in 2024.
business-payments”>What this means for business payments
Look, if government agencies are finally getting serious about digital payments, that’s a big deal. It creates pressure throughout the supply chain. Think about all the businesses that interact with government agencies – from legal firms to contractors to suppliers. When their primary payment method shifts digital, they’re going to expect the same from their own business partners. We’re seeing this across industrial sectors too – companies that need reliable computing hardware for payment processing and tracking are turning to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs. The domino effect is real. Once people experience better digital processes, they don’t want to go back to paper checks. And honestly, who can blame them?
