TravelVisaRules

How we verify visa rules

This is a neutral reference, not a visa service. We don't sell visas, we don't sell passports, and we add no markup. Every verdict links the official government source and shows the date we last checked it. Here is exactly how the data is collected, dated and updated — and where its limits are.

1. Where the data comes from

We follow a fixed source priority ladder, per fact:

  1. The destination's official authority (immigration service, MFA, or official e-Visa portal) — it controls boarding, so it is the system of record for status, stay, cost and documents.
  2. The issuing country's official advisory — used to confirm and to capture exceptions.
  3. Stable open metadata (ISO codes, currency) from open-licensed sources — never a visa rule.
  4. Reference lists (e.g. encyclopaedic articles) — only to find candidates, which are then re-verified at the official source. We never copy their prose.

We deliberately do not use airline/Timatic feeds or commercial visa-agent sites as a source of truth, and the official-source link is never a paid agent or a passport-ranking site. We store only the official government fee — never an agent's marked-up or bundled price.

2. The completeness gate

A corridor only gets its own page when it is "thick" — it has a clear status, the allowed stay (where that's meaningful), the instrument, the official source, and a last-verified date. Anything thinner stays a row in the passport table and never becomes a standalone page. We publish verified corridors in small, demand-ordered batches rather than dumping a full passport-by-country matrix.

3. Confidence & freshness

Every verdict carries a confidence level you can see:

  • High — verified directly against the destination authority, within its freshness window.
  • Medium — official but with one gap (a single source, or an aged check), so confirm the details.
  • Low — unverified or stale: confirm with the official source before you travel.

Confidence is not frozen. If a verdict has not been re-checked within 90 days, the badge is automatically lowered, and after 180 days it drops to "confirm before travel" — even if no one has touched the page. We would rather visibly admit a fact is aging than show a confident answer that has quietly gone stale.

4. When sources disagree (the fail-safe)

If two sources conflict and we can't yet resolve it against the official authority, we show the more restrictive answer (e.g. "visa required" over "visa-free") and lower the confidence. The tool must never tell you that you can travel freely when you can't. We keep a public corrections changelog of verdicts we've fixed — often where other sites and AI answers were wrong.

5. Limits & reporting an error

Visa rules change frequently and can depend on your exact circumstances (passport type, purpose, onward route, residence in other countries, dual nationality). This site is general guidance, not legal or immigration advice — always confirm with the official source and your airline before you book or fly. If you find something wrong or out of date, please email us — corrections are a feature, not a nuisance.

6. How to read our verification blocks

Corridor pages now carry a compact "How we verified this page" panel with the review date, the primary authority, any supporting source, and the stored confidence basis. Passport hubs and visa-free lists use the same pattern at cluster level, showing the size of the currently verified corridor set and the last review wave behind it. The goal is simple: you should never have to guess whether a page is fully verified, partially verified, or still a reference layer.