A 14-question profile runs through five layers in fixed order against every active visa programme. Each country comes out the other side with a score, a verdict, and the rule that flipped it. Same engine for everyone — paid and free.
Every visa pathway is scored in order. If a layer-1 rule fails, the pathway is out — no average can rescue it. If it passes, the next layer runs. The final score is a weighted aggregate of layers 2–5; the verdict is your score crossed against the cutoff matrix below.
Passport, age range, criminal record, hard quotas. Pass/fail only. If your nationality isn't eligible for a pathway, or the visa caps out at 31 and you're 34, the pathway is removed before any score is calculated.
Income floor, education level, work-experience years, language certificate, dependants, investment minimum, shortage-occupation match. Each pathway has its own threshold; partial matches scale down rather than fail.
Your savings + income vs. local cost of living, rent, healthcare, taxes. Reported as months of runway. Investments and savings are treated as alternatives (max, not sum) so you don't get double credit for the same money.
Job-market depth for your profession, salary band against the local median, employer sponsorship willingness, English-vs-local-language overhead. Penalises pathways where the visa is open but the job market is closed.
Political stability, currency volatility, rule-change cadence over the last 5 years, programme-closure risk. Penalises countries where the door tends to close suddenly — see Portugal NHR, UK Tier-1 Investor.
Before scoring, the engine runs four gate checks. Any fail removes the pathway. No score can compensate. These are reported in your report so you understand why a country you expected to see didn't appear.
If a pathway caps at 35 and you're 38, it's out. Working Holiday visas (most cap 30–31) and youth-mobility programmes are the most common triggers. Some countries raise the cap if you have dependants or specific qualifications — we encode those exceptions.
Many pathways are bilateral (e.g. Australian Working Holiday is restricted to ~45 nationalities). We use the actual eligible-nationality list per pathway, not a generic "European" shortcut.
Critical Skills, EU Blue Card, and most Express-Entry-style pathways require a degree. If you don't have one and a pathway requires one, it's gated out. The report also flags pathways you'd qualify for if you got a degree.
If a pathway requires B2 or C1 in a language you don't list as fluent, it's out. The engine separates "passive fluency" from "certificate held" — Portugal D7 requires certified B1 in year 5, not self-reported.
No AI-generated estimates, no crowd-sourced opinions for core data. The 2,500+ visa programmes, each linking to a named government or official source, are the spine of every report. Auxiliary data (cost of living, salary bands) comes from named statistical bodies — cost-of-living tools, OECD, Eurostat, World Bank — never anonymous aggregators.
| Data category | Primary sources |
|---|---|
| Visa requirements & pathways2,500+ pathways | Government immigration portals Embassy / consular sites National gazettes |
| Cost of living & rent200+ cities | cost-of-living tools Eurostat Expatistan Local consumer indices |
| Salary & employmentper profession | OECD earnings db National statistics offices PayScale Glassdoor |
| Tax regimesNHR / Beckham / IFICI / etc. | OECD tax db Government tax portals Big-Four country guides |
| Safety, healthcare, freedomcontextual | WHO UNDP HDI cost-of-living tools safety index Freedom House |
| Country metadatapassive | World Bank RestCountries EF English Proficiency Index |
Top destinations are re-verified quarterly. Long-tail countries are checked at least annually. When data is older or partial, we adjust the score downwards, never inflate — the worst sin a decision engine can commit is to be confident about old data.
All key fields verified from official sources within the last quarter. Used for top destinations: Portugal, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, etc.
Most fields present, some estimated, some older than 6 months. Used for second-tier destinations and emerging programmes.
Significant gaps, often micro-states, restricted-access programmes, or jurisdictions with poor English documentation. Flagged in the report.
Three buckets. No 5-star ratings, no "B+" grades, no "promising" hedges. We tell you what to do.
You meet the requirements and the country aligns with your priorities. Actionable within 3–6 months without major preparation.
What to do: contact a lawyer, start the application.
One or two dimensions are weak. Could work with 6–18 months of preparation — typically savings, language certificate, or job offer.
What to do: read the blocker, fix the gap, re-run.
Significant mismatches across multiple layers. Not recommended without major changes to your situation — passport, qualifications, family.
What to do: read the alternatives in your top 10.
A decision engine is a starting point, not a substitute. Two lists — what we do, what we explicitly don't.
14 questions. 3 minutes. Top 3 countries scored against the layers you just read about.
Start the free verdictNo payment · No signup · 14 questions · 3 min