How we check the rules
Only official sources
Every rule on this site comes from an official source: the destination government (immigration authority, foreign ministry, embassy), the European Union, or the traveler’s own government travel advice (the U.S. State Department, GOV.UK, the Government of Canada, Smartraveller for Australia). Airlines, travel agencies, visa services and news reports are only used as leads to find the official page, never as the source.
For each rule we record the official page, a short verbatim quote, and the date we read it. Those appear at the bottom of each page under “Official sources”.
When official sources disagree
Sometimes a destination’s embassy and a traveler’s own government say slightly different things (for example, about passport validity). We follow the destination government’s most specific and most recent page, note the difference on the page under “Where official sources differ”, and, where it matters for boarding, tell you the stricter rule is the safer choice.
How the trip check decides
No AI decides anything in the trip check. It applies a fixed rules table, built from official sources, to what you enter:
- Visa or authorization: the rule for your passport at each stop. For connections, the airside transit rule if you stay in the airport, otherwise the entry rule.
- Latest day to apply: your arrival date minus the official lead time (for example, “apply at least 72 hours before”). Where the official lead time is in working days, weekends are skipped; public holidays are not, so apply earlier.
- Passport validity: the date your passport must still be valid on, from the destination’s rule (for example, 3 months after you leave the Schengen area, or 6 months after arrival), compared with your expiry date.
- Schengen 90/180: every day in the Schengen area counts, including arrival and departure days, in any rolling 180-day window.
- Planned systems such as ETIAS are only applied from their official start date.
What you type stays in your browser. Nothing is sent to us or stored.
What the check does not cover
Long stays, work, study, residence permits, refugee or stateless travel documents, diplomatic passports, dual nationality, and anyone with a past refusal, overstay or criminal record. Countries outside our table are marked “not covered”, with a link to your government’s official advice. A border officer always makes the final decision.
Keeping it current
- Daily monitoring. Every day, an automated check reads the official pages behind our rules (one request per page, following each site’s robots.txt) and flags any page whose text changed.
- Human review. Each flagged change is read by a person against the official page before anything on the site changes. Nothing updates automatically.
- Monthly manual check. Official sites that block automated requests are checked by hand every month.
- Change log. Rule changes and corrections are logged on the changes page.
Right now the table covers 21 destinations plus the 29 Schengen countries, and 15 travel authorizations. Official sources were read between 2026-10-29 and 2026-10-30.
No paid influence
We don’t apply for anything and charge no fees. Ads and labeled affiliate links never change a rule or a result: see our sponsorship policy.