Guides
How visas actually work
The things a route page cannot hold: how a rule is counted, how an application really runs, and what to do when it goes wrong. Every figure was read off a government page, and each guide lists those pages with the date we read them.
- Dubai visa for Indians: how to get a UAE tourist visa, official fees Indian passport holders visiting Dubai need a UAE visa arranged in advance. Who can apply for you, the official Dubai fees (from AED 200), passport rules, and how to avoid fake agents.
- How to spot a fake visa website, and the official sites to use Lookalike visa sites charge several times the official fee for the same form. How to tell them apart, what governments say about them, and the official site for ESTA, ETA, eTA and ETIAS.
- India e-Visa for US citizens: the official fee and how to apply US citizens can apply for India's e-Visa online. The official fees ($10, $25, $40 or $160), which e-Tourist visa to choose, when to apply, and the official site.
- Turkey e-Visa for Indians: who qualifies and the official site Indians can get a Türkiye e-Visa only with a valid Schengen, US, UK or Irish visa or residence permit. The conditions, the one-month single-entry rule, and the official site.
- UK visa from Nigeria: the official fee, documents and steps Nigerians need a visa to visit the UK. The official £135 fee, how to apply on gov.uk, the documents to send, the TB test rule, and what to do if you are refused.
- Applying for a Schengen visa, step by step Which consulate, when to apply, the €90 fee and the service charge on top, the insurance rule, how long it takes, how multi-year visas are earned, and what a refusal must tell you.
- Canada: visitor visa or eTA? How to tell, and how to apply Which travellers need a Canadian visitor visa and which need a CA$7 eTA, what each costs, how to apply on the official IRCC pages, and what happens at the border.
- Do you need a visa for a layover? Airport transit rules Changing planes can need a visa. Who needs a Schengen airport transit visa or a UK DATV, which visas exempt you, why the US has no airside transit, and the self-transfer trap.
- EES and ETIAS: Europe's new border checks, explained The Entry/Exit System is running now and replaces passport stamps. ETIAS, the €20 travel authorisation, has no start date yet. What each one is, who it applies to, and what to do.
- eTA, ESTA, ETIAS, eVisa, visa on arrival: what's the difference A travel authorisation is not a visa. What each term means, the official fee, validity and portal for nine schemes, and how to spot the lookalike sites.
- How long must your passport be valid? The six-month rule Six months is common, not universal. What Schengen, the UK, the US and Canada actually require, the 10-year issue-date trap, blank pages, and why the airline checks first.
- How the Schengen 90/180-day rule actually works The 180 days are not a calendar half-year. They roll, one day at a time. Worked examples with real dates, what counts as a day, and what happens if you get it wrong.
- The UK Standard Visitor visa, from application to decision Who needs a UK visit visa and who needs an ETA, what it costs, how the Home Office decides, and what a refusal means. Every figure read off gov.uk on 30 September 2026.
- The US B-1/B-2 visitor visa: DS-160, fee, interview ESTA or visa, the DS-160, the $185 fee, reciprocity, interviews, visa bonds and 214(b) refusals. Read off US government pages, with a plain note on what we could not verify.
- Visa refused? What to do next What a refusal letter tells you, and what you can actually do about it in the UK, the Schengen area, the US and Canada: appeal, review, reapply, and the deadlines that apply.
- Kenya's eTA costs $30. Agents charge $90 for the same form. Nine government visa fees, read off the official pages and dated. If you were quoted more than these, you were paying someone to fill in a form you can fill in yourself.