Achievements
& Recognition

Jon Velie is the visionary founder and CEO of Online Visas: the first worldwide 24/7 collaboration platform for immigration law.

Started in 2016, Online Visas has revolutionized the process of preparing immigration petitions, slashing the time and cost of the legal production process while delivering documents that are optimized for maximum chance of approval.

Online Visas Gateway platform combines asynchronous global collaboration with smart automated document production and Velie Law's proprietary brief format that has delivered success rates ahead of the rest of the immigration sector for over 20 years.

Honors and awards

  • Business Excellence Award, Best Overall Business, Under 10 Employees, the Americas Region, 2013 Winner
  • Business Excellence Award, Best Overall Company, Under 50 Employees, Worldwide, 2012 Finalist
  • Gold Medal, Best Law Firm, Norman (OK) Transcript Readers Award, 2009
  • American Bar Association Louis M. Brown Award for Equal Access to Justice Honorable Mention, 2002
  • Nominee for Morris Dees Award 2007-2008.

Verdicts and settlements.

  • Won watershed decision protecting the treaty rights of Cherokee Freedmen in DC Court of Appeals Vann v. Kempthorne.
  • Received a $0 verdict when defending a civil RICO jury trial in Eastern District of Oklahoma
  • Settled sexual harassment case for $100,000.00 for Plaintiff
  • Settled automobile negligence case for $100,000.00 for Plaintiff
  • Briefed three cases for US Supreme Court regarding civil rights for Indians.

Transactions

  • Negotiated a $40 Million dollar casino development and management agreement with Caddo Nation and Onnam Entertainment
  • Negotiated a $130 Million dollar casino development and management agreement with Apache Tribe and Calleo Entertainment
  • Negotiated agreement to provide online transaction processing for University of Oklahoma with Vectrix Corporation
  • Negotiated agreement to stream the Millenium celebration for City of Dallas with Yahoo! And Vectrix

Special licenses and certifications

US Supreme Court, US Court of Appeals 10th Circuit, US Court of Appeals for DC Circuit, US Federal Court for Eastern District of Oklahoma, US Federal Court for Western District of Oklahoma, US Federal Court for Northern District, State of Oklahoma Supreme Court, Sac and Fox Nation Court, Chickasaw Nation Court, Muscogee (Creek) Supreme Court and District Court, Absentee Shawnee Tribal Court, Cherokee Nation Court

Bar and or other professional activity

  • Member of Inns of Court, (Oklahoma City) 2011
  • Member American Immigration Lawyers Association 1996-
  • Member Society of Human Resource Managers 

Pro bono and community service

  • Represented Seminole Freedmen 1993-Present in five law suits in 10th Circuit and DC District Court
  • Represented Cherokee Freedmen 2003-Present in two cases DC Court of Appeals, DC District Court and Northern District of Oklahoma

Scholarly lectures and writings

  • Speaker Sports Law Association, 2010-2012 Annual Conference and 2012 Northern California Law School Tour
  • Debate w Cherokee Nation Attorney General, Univ. of Oklahoma College of Law, 2012
  • Debate w Cherokee Nation Principal Chief, John Hope Franklin Reconciliation in America Symposium Tulsa, OK 2012
  • Speaker, How to Practice Law in a Hawaiian Shirt, University of Oklahoma College of Law, 2009-
  • Speaker, How to do Business in America and other panels, Girl 2.0 Conference, Shanghai, China, 2010
  • Speaker at 2007 US Congressional Black Caucus Panel on the Freedmen along with Cong. John Conyers, Cong. Diane Watson, Actor Danny Glover, Hilary Shelton of NAACP, my client Marilyn Vann and advocate Wayne Thompson as moderator, Washington, D.C.
  • Speaker at 2006 US Congressional Black Caucus Panel on the Freedmen, Washington, D.C.
  • Speaker at the Federal Bar Association Indian Law Section Annual Conference regarding Tribal Disenrollment, Albuquerque, NM
  • Speaker at Dartmouth College, Manchester, N.H, regarding the Seminole Freedmen
  • Speaker at SMU College of Law, Dallas, TX , regarding the Seminole Freedmen
  • Speaker at University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, OK regarding the Seminole Freedmen
  • Speaker at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA regarding Seminole Freedmen
  • Speaker at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC regarding the Seminole Freedmen
  • Speaker, University of Arizona and Tahona O’Odham Tribe Native American Economic Summit, Tucson, Arizona, 1994
  • Speaker, US Department of HUD, Shared Visions Conference, Pine Ridge Reservation, during President Clinton’s visit.
  • Speaker, US Dept. of HUD, Palm Springs, CA,
  • Organizer and Speaker of Annual Immigration Seminar for Aspen Ski Company, 2005-2009
  • Speaker at Immigration Seminar for Lucent Technologies Bell Labs,  N.J.
  • Speaker at University of Oklahoma College of Law regarding practice of law 2006, 2007
  • Speaker at University of Oklahoma, Price School of Business regarding Immigration  2006. 2005
  • Author, “Should the United States be Fighting for Jim Crow’s Survival by its complicity in Denying Voting Rights to the Cherokee Freedmen?”, The Federal Lawyer, Feb. 2007 

Other outstanding achievement

  • Editor of ImmigrationMagazine.com
  • Columnist for legal issues for Rugby Magazine
  • Obtained first U.S. green card for a Professional Rugby Player
  • Featured in articles in New York Times six times
  • Selected as an innovator in the legal profession by American Bar Association in its White Paper on Law and Technology, 2002
  • Featured in segment on CBS’ Sixty Minutes II, A Nation Divided, 2002
  • Featured in articles in Time Magazine, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, London Times, USA Today, The Scotsman, The Australian, Chicago Tribune
  • Featured in Rugby Magazine, ”Rugby immigration Experts.”
  • International Gymnast Magazine, “Immigration Men.”
  • Featured in Lawyer’s Weekly, July 2001. “Taking the Law firm Website to the Next Level.”
  • Cover and feature in The Weekly Journal.