Key Takeaways
- IT consulting and staffing firms owned by L-1 holders are among the most fundable businesses
- Contract revenue, client retainers, and project billing all qualify as revenue
- Many L-1 holders operate consulting firms where their L-1 employer IS their company
- SBA loans closed to L-1 holders — Bankable funds directly on consulting revenue
- Up to $5M with decisions in 48 hours
The consulting industry and the L-1 visa are deeply intertwined in a way that most funding advisors never examine carefully. Consider the typical IT consulting firm structure: a founder in India or China establishes a consulting company, which then wins a US client contract, which then triggers an L-1A transfer of the founder/CEO to the US subsidiary to manage the US operations. The foreign company and the US company are the same business. The CEO of one is the CEO of the other. The L-1 holder IS the consulting business.
This is not an edge case — it is the primary business model for thousands of IT consulting firms operating in the United States, many of them generating $500K to $50M in annual revenue. Their clients are Fortune 500 companies. Their work product is technical implementation, digital transformation, staff augmentation. Their revenue is real, documented, and substantial. And when they walk into a bank for a line of credit to cover payroll between client payment cycles, they are told they do not qualify because they do not have a green card.
Bankable funds on contract revenue. Your MSA with a Fortune 500 client, your outstanding invoices, your bank statements showing consulting fees received — these are the basis of our underwriting. Your visa is not.
Consulting Capital Use Cases
- Payroll bridge for contractor staff: Consulting firms pay staff bi-weekly but collect from clients on net-30 or net-60 terms — the gap requires working capital
- Business development and proposal costs: RFP responses, solution demonstrations, and BD travel can cost $50K-$200K before a contract is won
- Technology infrastructure: Project management tools, collaboration software, security certifications, and cloud environments for client projects
- Insurance and bonding: E&O, cyber liability, and performance bonds required by enterprise clients often have large upfront premiums
- Office space for client-site work: Some contracts require a local physical presence — deposits and buildout costs require capital
The Payroll Gap Is the Core Problem
A consulting firm with $200K per month in client billings should be profitable. Often it is — on paper. But if that $200K is collected on net-45 terms, and you are paying 12 consultants on a bi-weekly payroll, you have a $300K-$400K working capital requirement to stay current with payroll during the collection cycle. This gap is structural. It does not reflect business failure; it reflects growth. And it is precisely the gap that Bankable's revolving lines of credit are designed to fill.
An L-1 consulting firm with $2M in annual revenue and 15 billable consultants qualifies for a revolving line of $150K to $500K with Bankable. Draw for payroll, repay when clients pay. Repeat. The business grows without the visa-related friction that every traditional lender introduces.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. IT consulting, management consulting, and professional services firms owned by L-1 holders qualify for Bankable funding based on contract revenue. We do not require a green card.
Six months of business bank statements, a sample client contract or MSA, EIN documentation, and your SSN. If you have outstanding invoices from creditworthy clients, those can accelerate the process.
Yes. Payroll working capital is the most common use case for consulting firm funding. Bankable offers revolving lines that let you draw for payroll and repay when client invoices are collected.
We analyze the trailing 6-12 months of bank statement revenue for trend and seasonality. Project-based consulting with lumpy revenue is accommodated — we look at annual run rate, not just the last month.
Client quality is a positive factor — a consulting firm with Fortune 500 clients and multi-year MSAs is a stronger profile than one dependent on a single small client. But the primary qualification is your own business revenue history.
Yes. Invoice factoring for IT staffing and consulting firms is available. We advance 85-90% of invoice value, you repay when the client pays. No citizenship requirement for the factoring facility.
A consulting firm with $150K/month in revenue typically qualifies for $100K-$400K. Larger firms with $500K+/month in revenue can access $1M-$3M. The ratio depends on revenue quality, client concentration, and payment history.
Bankable requires a minimum of 6 months of documented US business revenue. Consulting firms in their first year with at least 6 months of bank-statement-verified revenue qualify for review.