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Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

visalist.io

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Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#91
post #64

Interesting, but how do you keep this up to date? These requirement change constantly and the only reliable source I'm aware of, Timatic (which is what airlines use), is copyrighted and quite tightly locked down. Wikipedia does crowdsource this info fairly effectively though, sample: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Indian_c...

I don't understand why anybody would use this site vs the wikipedia site. Can somebody explain the utility here?

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#92

Good work! Just something I reacted to as a Swede is that the Åland Islands, the Faroe Islands and Greenland are listed as separate countries. Citizens of these areas hold Finnish or Danish passports respectively.

Not sure about the Åland Islands, but at least Faroe and Greenland have a different visa regime than Denmark (they are both not in Schengen. Also Danish citizen residing e.g. in the Faroe are not seen as Schengen citizen, or something like that).

Generally a hard edge case are all those autonomous or semiautonomous territories. Like all the islands of UK and France (some French territories are part of the EU, some are not). It's often a lot harder to get info on the visa requirements for those.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#93
I checked one combination for which I am fairly aware of the details and I find multiple errors:

USA, visiting China.

It tells me 30 day stay, 90 day visa validity--but down in "tips" it correctly says I would get a 10 year visa. (In practice--I hold a 60 day stay visa, my (China-born) wife has a 90 day stay. These are by no means our first visas, though.)

It also says registration is required within 24 hours--this is the rule for urban areas, in rural ones it's 72 hours. Also, in practice this normally does not matter as the hotel does it for you--you just need to do it yourself if you're not in a hotel.

It also lists financial document requirements that AFIAK are not expected of Americans.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#94
post #64

Interesting, but how do you keep this up to date? These requirement change constantly and the only reliable source I'm aware of, Timatic (which is what airlines use), is copyrighted and quite tightly locked down. Wikipedia does crowdsource this info fairly effectively though, sample: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Indian_c...

You do have to be careful and read the fine print. This year, I was turned away at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border (US citizen) because I had read on that Wikipedia page that it was Visa free. In fact, it is only visa free if you arrive via the Minsk airport. Fortunately I was only driving through a tiny part of Belarus on my way to Poland so it was a simple matter of another 30 minutes or so of driving to enter Pol…

I was confused by the order of countries and thought you were turned away by Lithuanians. Being turned away by Belorussians as a US citizen makes much more sense.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#95
post #60
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, out of curiosity, how do u ensure this information stays up to date?

I'm planning to add crowdsource features

Why not just scrape the info from Wikipedia? It will be a lot easier for you to maintain, you'll have access to more data than you do now, and the information will be a lot more accurate. You can also fetch the latest info once a day (or more often for that matter) without worrying about your IP being blacklisted. Even if you had a million active users then I doubt you'd end up with more accurate and up-to-date info than what you can find on Wikipedia.

To me it also seems very misleading when countries that only allow 15-30 days visa-free entry are being listed as visa free. I like the layout of the website, but I personally can't see myself using it as long as I still need to visit Wikipedia for accurate information with regard to visa free duration.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#97
post #64

Interesting, but how do you keep this up to date? These requirement change constantly and the only reliable source I'm aware of, Timatic (which is what airlines use), is copyrighted and quite tightly locked down. Wikipedia does crowdsource this info fairly effectively though, sample: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Indian_c...

I'd recommend using your country's official website, they usually keep the visa requirements and travel advice up to date.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#100
post #78
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does having more passports work "additively" or "subtractively"? For example I can imagine that a person with only a UK passport can enter the US more freely than a person with both a UK and Iraqi passport.

Countries usually don't know which passports you have (If you enter for the first time and they don't have some kind of data-sharing agreement) so you'd just enter with the one that's easier not by showing all of yours.

There is no question about other nationalities on the visa application form?
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