
Show HN: IAvisa – Explore visa requirements worldwide - theurs
https://iavisa.com/
======
supernova87a
Maybe the OP or the makers of this website don't know, but there is a
_definitive_ source of visa, passport, and transit permission info that the
IATA already publishes to help airlines determine whether they should allow
you on a flight. It's called Timatic.

It includes such detail as country of travel origin, country of passport
issuance, nationality, duration of stay, country of transit, visa/papers held.

I would go to that source first than any other cobbled together fancy looking
website that someone is hawking as a advertisement. And I don't know why
someone would bother trying to duplicate Timatic by gathering their own info,
which is guaranteed to be out of date. Honestly I don't even know how some
small team could keep up with the 100x100 combinations of country/destination
paperwork requirements.

It's found through the airline websites themselves, as they have to subscribe
as a service, like: [https://www.united.com/web/en-
us/apps/vendors/default.aspx?i...](https://www.united.com/web/en-
us/apps/vendors/default.aspx?i=TIMATIC)

Edit: The OP's website is already so slow and low in info content, and Timatic
while ugly, works. Why was this even a website worth posting about?

~~~
fareesh
Fwiw even timatic is wrong. I visited your link and entered India and Turkey
as departure and arrival for Indian nationals.

The system advised me to apply for an eVisa, however eligibility criteria for
eVisas is exclusive to folks who have a valid EU Schengen visa. Someone who
casually relied on the result without reading further would have missed this.

The bottom line is travel is expensive and visa rejections have long lasting
consequences. It is foolish to rely on anything except the official
immigration department website of the country in question, or an official
third party who is appointed by the government.

~~~
HeavenFox
I don't think it's fair to say TIMATIC is wrong in this instance - it does say
visa required and eVisa is acceptable. It did not say the eVisa can be
obtained by everyone.

~~~
fareesh
Sure but what good is selective, technically correct information for someone
who would generally use this as part of making their travel plans. If you are
going to end up checking official sources anyway, then you are better off with
them.

------
keehun
Where did you get these phone numbers (for the United States)?

> Police - 999

> Ambulance - 997

> Fire - 998

> Traffic police - 993 Mobile phones - 112 or 911

> Non-emergency ambulance - 1777

> Police hotline - 1800 255 0000

> Traffic police - 6547 0000

None of them seem to be correct, except for 911. In the United States, 911 is
the same for police, ambulance, fire, and "traffic police". Also, non-
emergency ambulance/police are all varied depending on your current location
and are usually administered by the county/city/district that you're in. There
is no global number (that I'm aware of) that is the nearest non-emergency
police/ambulance line.

------
notafraudster
I will submit my user story as an attempt to offer feedback on the site. I
live in the United States and am traveling to Mexico next week.

I put in from: United States to: Mexico. The information I received begins
with "Visa Required: Yes". This is news to me, as I have traveled in this
manner several times and never had a visa. I don't have a visa for next week,
and so I am now worried that I won't be allowed in to Mexico.

The next text presented is "Mexico city is the capital city of Mexico. Mexico
is found in North america. Citizens from United states need visa to enter
Mexico. In the Mexico country page you can find more tourist information about
infrastructure and attractions." I do not think this text was written by
someone who is a native English speaker. Some tells include not following
English rules for proper noun capitalization, missing articles, and weird
diction. This makes me less likely to trust the information. Is that fair?
Maybe not. But it suggests the page has not been copy-edited or checked for
accuracy. This text also reiterates that I would need a visa.

Then the next text says: "If you have a valid Canada, Japan, Schengen, United
Kingdom, United States visa or are permanent resident you do not need visa to
enter Mexico for up to 180 days." I do not understand what is being claimed
here. If I have a US visa for Japan I can enter Mexico without a Mexican visa?
I think what it's trying to say is if I carry a Canadian, Japanese, Schengen
(EU), United Kingdom, or United States passport (not the same as a visa), I
can enter Mexico without a visa for fewer than 180 days. But this is in
contrast to the above text and header which claim I do need a visa.

Finally, I clicked on the Mexico page and saw that although it was missing a
lot of essential information, it did tell me it's OK to possess marijuana in
Mexico. A brief Google search does not make it clear if this information is
correct -- I see a lot of information about how they're going to legalize but
haven't yet. I am extremely concerned that this website is making a claim
that, if incorrect, could get someone in serious legal trouble.

I then clicked "Visa information". This gave me a list of countries that
require and do not require a visa to access Mexico. The list of countries that
do not require a visa is enormous, far larger than the number above. What
explains the inconsistency between the lists above and the list I'm looking at
here? Even more baffling, immediately below this list of countries is text
repeating the claim above that people with Canada, Japan, Schengen (EU), UK,
or US "visas" do not need a visa for Mexico.

I am not trying to be negative. I am simply sharing my experience trying to
use this website for a very simple use case as an actual user. After using the
website, I am more unclear and concerned about my upcoming travel than I was
when I started, and now I need to seek out external information to find out
what is true and what is false.

~~~
joshuaissac
The part about people with a visa for Canada, Japan, Schengen area, UK or US
is just as the website says. It is not about passports. A person from a third
country who holds one of above visas can enter Mexico without a Mexican visa.

[https://www.inm.gob.mx/gobmx/word/index.php/paises-
requieren...](https://www.inm.gob.mx/gobmx/word/index.php/paises-requieren-
visa-para-mexico/)

~~~
notafraudster
Okay, so the correct information is: Most countries can travel to Mexico
without a visa (for tourism for 180 days or less). Separately, nationals of
other countries which would require a visa can travel to Mexico without a visa
if they have a visa or non-citizenship permanent residence from the
CA/JPN/EU/UK/US.

Thanks, I appreciate the clarification.

------
steffann
It says "Amsterdam is the mail city of Netherlands" and "Currency: Dutch
guilder".

I wouldn't trust a website with such low quality text and information,
especially not for advice on legal/travel documents.

~~~
airstrike
Reads like satire! Now I'm genuinely sad the dutch currency isn't the Dutch
Guilder...

~~~
bewuethr
It used to be, pre Euro :)

~~~
airstrike
TIL! Thanks

------
transreal
Your data is wrong. I put in from "United States" to "Israel", and it said a
Visa is required, which is not true unless the visit is longer than 3 months.

Also, the very first time I used it, I typed in "USA" to "Germany", and it
treated the unknown string "USA" as a country, and told me a visa was
required, which is also not true.

------
jchampem
I think this is a very though subject and cannot be treated so easily.

Visa policies might be very different from one country to another, updated
quiet often etc.

What you believe to be the source of truth on the internet might not be the
actual truth. For personal reasons I recently had to know whether or not a
Visa was required for a personal short travel to Russia for a Mauritius
citizen. Various information can be found on the internet, some says yes, some
says no. Your website says a visa is required. However, a visa is not required
in this case.

It's very tricky to get the correct information, always up to date, and your
website can lead to people having issues entering a country.

~~~
deanclatworthy
Furthermore this website is dangerous. People travelling you thailand are
advised by their embassies to bring 20,000 baht. It’s often not checked on
arrival but people have been thrown in jail cells and deported because of
this.

Visa information is no joke. You should always get it from the local embassy
website.

------
taesu
Very misleading b/c layman may think just b/c you're travelling from A to B,
you're required/not required to have visa, which is not true, it depends on
the passport you hold regardless of your origin of your trip. For example, if
you are travelling from Canada to the US, the site says you don't need a visa,
but in fact if you do not hold Canadian passport, you may need to apply for
ESTA.

~~~
theurs
Thanks for the info, I thought the process of A: home country, B: destination
country.

If you go on the site and check, going from the US to Canada the meta title
is: Canada visa for United States citizens but I get your point, will make it
more obvious. Thanks, good feedback!

~~~
safog
There's a bunch of special cases along these lines - As an Indian citizen, I'd
normally need a visa to visit Mexico / Costa Rica but I live in the US on a
work visa which means that the visa requirement is waived.

This is just one citizenship, country pair and I assume there's a lot more.

------
adrianmsmith
Small usability tip: When you specify your source/destination country and
submit the form, the countries you entered should ideally _still_ be in the
form on the results page.

As it is, I'm from United Kingdom, checking out a country to go to, I see and
read the visa information. If I want to check out another country, I have to
enter I'm from United Kingdom again.

And I always feel the question of "what am I looking at?" is best answered by
looking at the form. I know the information is displayed in other places on
the results page, but still, the form is the part of the page the user has
already interacted with, and are familiar with.

------
simonsaidit
Wife is from Philippines living in Denmark and we had to go to Jordan, Aqaba.
Your page will say I need Visa which is true but it’s given on arrival because
of the entry point. Wife is another matter, she has to get it in the Jordanian
embassy in Berlin as Denmark only has a consulate. The Jordanian webpage
information has not been updated for ages and is wrong. The embassy is
somewhat helpful but it took me several calls to figure out how to do the
return postage for the passport as danish mail had discontinued this product a
year earlier. Also first thing wife will usually do is google visa <country>
and end up on a advertisement with a high premium on the visa and a crazy fee
when you realize the mistake and try and cancel. Would be great with a place
to get a quick overview of the normal price and a place to comment and discuss
the challenges you sometimes run into.

~~~
filleduchaos
Exactly - visas aren't quite as black and white as the website appears to make
out. There's visa on arrival vs having to go to an embassy/consulate (and
there might not be one in the country you're currently in - it's not
impossible to get yourself into a state where you have to travel back to your
home country to be able to apply for a visa to your intended destination).
Plus certain visas actually give you right of entry to other countries (for
example if you have a US visa, you can enter nearly forty countries visa-free,
some with caveats).

~~~
seszett
> _visas aren 't quite as black and white as the website appears to make out_

There are many of these sites and none of them ever has information that can
actually be trusted.

The truth is that entry requirements are much too complicated to treat with a
single uniform method, and the only reliable way to know what you have to do
is to visit both your country's foreign ministry website and the website of
the foreign country's consulate in your own country. Maybe the foreign
country's foreign ministry website as well.

And even then, for some countries with somewhat shaky administration and rules
you still won't be sure of what you need.

------
wippler
I wouldn't recommend this website for visa information. For example, I put in
"United States" -> "Peru" \- it says visa is required and when clicked on more
information it takes me to a page where it lists which countries require visa
for traveling to Peru. In that list among the visa required countries, it
shows "united states" and in no visa required section it has "united statesa"

------
United857
Yet another issue: Hong Kong and Taiwan are not listed as options.

No matter what your political views are about the situation, the fact is that
they have separate visa rules from mainland China and should definitely be
listed.

------
ulfw
For anyone who is actually looking for this information, here is a site that
Airlines use:

[https://www.traveldoc.aero](https://www.traveldoc.aero)

You can input your Origin and Destination, Passport info and select one way or
round trip/transit etc and see the relevant information, up to date.

------
hsson
Cool site. However, I found that it seems to search/replace "us" with "United
States" in certain places where it's not expected, e.g.:

"A bUnited Statesiness visa requires an invitation from a company..."

~~~
seszett
Otherwise known as the "clbuttic mistake":

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/266...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2667634/The-
Clbuttic-Mistake-When-obscenity-filters-go-wrong.html)

------
jaclaz
Incipit of the "About us" page:

>We warmly welcome you, our dear client! If you read these lines it means you
have a concern, or you just want to know who is behind this site. And we want
to know so let’s get together!

(follows a lenghty explanation of how to use Iavisa and on what is a Visa)

So they don't even know who they are?

Yet in the "Terms" page there is this little pearl of wisdom:

>Thirdly, it’s time to talk about protecting your data, a very special topic
nowadays. It is your responsibility to keep your phone and access to the web
app secure. It is not recomended to jailbreak or even root your phone, which
is the process of the removing software restrictions and limitations imposed
by the official operating system to your device. If you do this, it could make
your phone vulnerable to malicious, viruses and malware programs, compromise
your phone’s security features and it could meant that the web app won’t work
properly or at all.

------
maybeiambatman
Alternative: [https://visalist.io/](https://visalist.io/)

~~~
craze3
Yeah, that's by @1hakr. He made a Show HN about 8 months ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18640880](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18640880)

Since then, he went on to launch a crypto trading tool that is making him
$2k/month: [https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/how-i-built-a-
cryptoc...](https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/how-i-built-a-
cryptocurrency-trading-app-that-makes-4k-mo-1a0b19fdc4)

~~~
maybeiambatman
Wow. That is impressive!

------
4ntonius8lock
The site seems to aim at providing a quick and easy way of accessing this
information that is lower reliability than say, going and looking for each bit
of info yourself.

So I see the value.

What I think you need to clarify and improve on is: 1- Making sure people
understand that your info might not be perfect/100% accurate. 2- Provide links
for people to verify any data points that are of particular value to them.

For example, on the US, there is a point about weed with the following answer:
"In some states you can, in other it is illegal."

To be clear: even in states where it is legal, the Federal government
considers it illegal, and your use of the substance even in a legal state will
disqualify you from Visa eligibility. If you buy it and then lie, you are also
breaking your Visa eligibility.

So, while your offhanded answer can be great for gathering a birds eye view on
a lot of data points, users can't really place too much trust in the
completeness or accuracy of any one answer.

Explaining this and linking to other sites for more in-depth info, like in the
case of the USA VisaJourney.com - would great improve the usefulness of your
site.

Basically, don't try to be an authority when you are not. Instead provide
something that is missing; a better connection of high level, low accuracy
info.

As it stands, I feel your site is more a danger to others for relying on it,
than it could provide benefit.

------
raverbashing
What's your source of truth? Ideally it would be Timatic.

Also a good disclaimer to add is that this concerns visa for short visits.

------
corn_dog
I like how Australia is located in the continent of Ocean

------
marcinzm
There's some search/replace issues in the text. For example, it seems 'us' was
replaced with 'United States' which results in India's visa info having this
sort of text: "You mUnited Statest apply at least 4 days".

------
thejosh
Your copy could use work:

[https://iavisa.com/fast-united-states-visa-for-australia-
cit...](https://iavisa.com/fast-united-states-visa-for-australia-citizens)

> In order to United Statese

------
astatine
A good, friendly site for this info is much needed. But, as many have pointed
out, this is a particularly tough problem to solve as the source of info is
itself unreliable.

I checked India to eSwatini and was not surprised to find that the country was
still listed with its old name, Swaziland. The visa situation for this pair is
complex with a visa preapproval that's needed and a visa to be obtained in
eSwatini not at the border but at an office in the city (which you are allowed
to go to). And, naturally, none of this is documented anywhere.

------
odiroot
First search and already wrong. I, as a Pole, don't need a visa for Malaysia.
How do I know? I entered the country just a few months before without any
problems.

~~~
darrenf
I feel compelled to point out that, with respect, all you really know is what
the situation was _at the time you entered_. Not only are visa/entry
requirements complex, they are also fluid - adding to the chorus of reasons
why this is not a subject that cannot be approached lightly. There really is
no such thing as an MVP when it comes to what is essentially legal advice.
You're either accurate or you're dangerously wrong IMO.

------
fishywang
what's your data source? if it's not timatic, how do you guarantee it's
accuracy? or is accuracy not this "product"'s main concern?

~~~
theurs
I've collected the information from various websites including wikipedia.

~~~
simonsaidit
It’s going to be hard work to build something reliable about the need for visa
or not. For me just linking to the relevant government website and other
contact information would be useful. And possible a way to comment.

Info about avoiding those unofficial visa sites would also help a lot of
people.

------
fareesh
I would never, ever, ever trust a third party for visa requirements.

A product like this is conceptually flawed, because it is defeated by better
judgement.

------
MadWombat
The title of the post says "explore visa requirements". So I go to the site,
select "travel from USA to France" and hit the button. The only thing I see
about visa requirements is "Visa Required: Yes". Nothing else. Not much to
explore. The fact that a US citizen does not need a visa to travel to any
Schengen country is besides the point.

------
leshkanyc
Can’t use their contact form - it’s just not working, so posting it here:

Hey there,

Tested your website - putting travel from Ukraine to Switzerland and Germany
and your website says visa required, however it is not for 90 days for
Ukrainian citizens holders of the biometric passport. Please update.

Also your website is really slow. Let me know, if you need hints on
optimization for loading.

Alex

------
geeku
IATA has a website, I am not sure what additional service from the new service
[https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/IN-India-passport-visa-
heal...](https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/IN-India-passport-visa-health-
travel-document-requirements.htm#)

------
alexxxyz
Interesting overview of requirements.

I use [https://www.viselio.com/](https://www.viselio.com/). They take it a
step further and offer a fully automated visa application form. Just enter the
country you want to travel to and they take care of the visa.

------
deepspace
In addition to the many problems pointed out by others:

1\. When I click on a country name, I see country information and have to
click on a tab to see visa information. Poor user experience.

2\. The "visa required" list for a country is not sorted alphabetically. It's
just an unusable mess, really.

------
wingworks
On the US page, it says they drive on the left when they actually drive on the
right. [https://iavisa.com/united-states/](https://iavisa.com/united-states/)

~~~
sombremesa
Maybe it means the side of the car the driver sits on?

Edit: it doesn't. Just incorrect.

------
aloknnikhil
Uh, it says people drive on the left side in the United States. Also, there's
some weird caching artifact. When I repeat the search for a different pair of
countries, it takes me back to the results of my previous search

------
alexxxyz
Nice overview.

I use [https://www.viselio.com](https://www.viselio.com). They take it a step
further and offer a fully automated visa application form.

------
adamc
Needs more information. Also, needs to understand the many nicknames/aliases
countries have, e.g., US, "U.S.", "America", "England"...

------
cnxhk
It doesn't look correct to me. According to your website "no visa required"
for Americans include only "american territories bermuda canada".

------
joegahona
Low-priority, but a lot of the text needs to be broken into paragraphs so it's
not just giant oil spills of text.

------
mshockwave
Why there isn't Taiwan(R.O.C) in the country list? I can't find it even in the
web page source code.

------
kalleboo
I like how the social media logos just go to the website front pages. If you
ever need a link to twitter.com...

------
charlesdm
Cool website, however, I really dislike the name. Doesn't make much sense to
me.

------
pyryt
Data pretty badly wrong. Finnish currency was correct maybe 20 years ago.

------
huhtenberg
> _Andorra la vella is the mail city of Andorra._

Erm... :)

------
29athrowaway
[https://xkcd.com/937/](https://xkcd.com/937/)

------
squanch
nice project. the font makes it a bit hard to read imo tho.

~~~
theurs
Thanks for the info, what font do you suggest I should use?

