The scoring engine takes your inputs at face value and assumes a few things about you. If those assumptions don't hold, the report will tell you to MOVE somewhere where you would actually be refused. We'd rather lose your €10 than waste your time.
Cases where the verdict will be wrong for you
1. You have a criminal record
Almost every visa programme requires a criminal-record certificate or police-clearance check. Convictions for fraud, drug offences, violent crime, or any sentence over 12 months are blocking factors for most countries — even ones that score MOVE for your other inputs.
The engine doesn't know about your record. The report won't reflect this. Talk to an immigration lawyer in your target country — "criminal inadmissibility" rules are programme-specific and a lawyer can sometimes get a waiver.
2. You're seeking asylum or refugee status
Asylum is a different legal track. It does not work via skills-based or income-based visas. The right path is via UNHCR or the asylum authority of the country you reach — not via a quiz.
If you're at risk in your home country, contact UNHCR directly, or a refugee-rights organisation in your destination region.
3. You have a complex dual-citizenship situation
The engine scores one nationality at a time — the one you select. If you hold two passports and the second one materially changes your eligibility (e.g. an EU passport for someone whose primary input was a non-EU one), the verdict will be conservative or wrong.
Workaround: run the quiz once per passport you hold, then take both reports together to a lawyer. Or contact hello@wheretoemigrate.io — we sometimes regenerate manually for dual-citizenship cases.
4. You have health exclusions affecting medical clearance
Several countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UAE) require a medical examination as part of the visa process. Conditions that may be excluded: HIV (some countries), tuberculosis, certain mental-health conditions, conditions requiring expensive ongoing public-healthcare treatment.
The engine does not know about these and will not flag them. If a programme involves medical clearance and you have a relevant condition, talk to a lawyer first.
5. You're a citizen of a country under sanctions
If your nationality is currently subject to specific bilateral or multilateral restrictions, normal visa rules may not apply. Russia (post-2022), Iran, North Korea, certain Belarus and Myanmar segments, and a few other contexts have extraordinary processing rules that the engine treats as normal pathways.
The verdict will overstate what's available. Use a country-specific lawyer.
6. You're under 18 or moving as an unaccompanied minor
Minor-specific visas (student, family reunification with parents, guardianship) have separate rules. The engine assumes adult applicant status. If the migrant is a child, the parent or guardian needs the lawyer.
7. You already have a lawyer working your case
If a lawyer has already taken intake and is filing for a specific programme, you don't need a shortlist tool. The shortlisting is done. Save the €10.
(Buy us anyway if you want to sanity-check the lawyer's recommendation against the engine's verdict — some users do this. But it's not the primary use case.)
8. You're looking for "guaranteed" approval
No-one can guarantee a visa decision. Anyone selling that is selling a scam. The engine gives you a probability-weighted match score — not a guarantee.
If a verdict says MOVE with a 90% match, that means your inputs match the programme's requirements very well. The visa officer still has discretion.
9. You want to invest €1M+ for a citizenship-by-investment
HNW second-passport advisory is a different market. We don't cover citizenship-by-investment programmes (CBI Caribbean, Malta, Turkey, etc.) at the depth you'd need to commit that capital.
For HNW second-passport: Nomad Capitalist or Henley & Partners. Or your private banker.
10. You want emotional support, not a verdict
The report is honest. Some verdicts say AVOID. If you're in a fragile place and need encouragement rather than data, a friend or therapist will help more than this product.
We will keep the data factual. We will not artificially say MOVE to keep you happy. That's the point.
What to do instead, depending on your case
Need a lawyer for a specific country?
Look for a lawyer registered with the destination country's bar or immigration regulator. In the UK use the OISC register. In the US use AILA. In Canada use the ICCRC. In the EU, each country's bar association lists immigration specialists.
Need free, accurate, country-specific government info?
Canada: IRCC. UK: gov.uk. US: USCIS. Australia: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au. Germany: BAMF. We link to the official source on every pathway in our database too — see /data-sources.
None of the above — you're a regular professional or family looking for a shortlist?
That's exactly what we built for. Run the quiz, get the verdict, then take the top result to a lawyer for execution.
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