The research, explained.
Overview
The internet has plenty of visa information. Most of it is outdated, uncited, or contradictory. VisaScout runs five parallel research agents against official immigration sources, recent policy news, and real traveler reports. A sixth agent reconciles contradictions. The result is one brief with every claim sourced and scored.
Research Depths
Every brief runs the same five agents. Depth controls how many sources each agent pulls. More sources means more coverage, more corroboration, and a higher total source count. But also more time.
Scout · Free
3 sources / agent · 15 total · ~60s
Quick orientation. Is there a visa issue you need to know about? Pulls from 3 sources per agent across 5 parallel agents.
Intel · $9.99
5 sources / agent · 25 total · ~90s
Booking soon or need all options on the table. 5 sources per agent, deeper conflict resolution, fuller recommendations.
Dossier · $14.99
8 sources / agent · 40 total · ~180s
Complex situation or you cannot afford to be wrong. 8 sources per agent, maximum coverage across all 5 research dimensions.
Source Tiers
Every fact in a VisaScout brief is tagged with a source tier. When sources conflict, higher tiers win. Within the same tier, newer beats older. This is the ruleset, not a black box.
Tier 1
Official Government
Immigration portals, embassy sites (.gov, .go.th, .gov.vn)
Slow to update but highest authority. T1 beats all other tiers regardless of recency.
Tier 2
Official Advisories
IATA, Timatic, government travel advisories
Regularly maintained. Trusted when T1 sources are absent or ambiguous.
Tier 3
Reputable Aggregators
VisaHQ, Sherpa, iVisa
Useful but derived from T1/T2. Used when official sources are hard to access directly.
Tier 4
Community
Reddit, Nomad List, Facebook groups, expat forums
Not authoritative on rules, but often the first place enforcement reality shows up.
Confidence Scores
Confidence scores are not AI-generated sentiment. They are a direct function of which sources were found and whether they agree. We never hide a low score. If we cannot verify something from official sources, we say so.
Well Sourced
Act on this.
The official record is clear and corroborated. Two or more T1 sources agree, or 4 of 5 research agents reached the same conclusion with no contested claims.
Verify Key Details
Reliable for primary rules.
Verify the contested item or deadline before travel. One T1 source confirmed, or a majority of agents agree with at most one contested claim.
Verify Before Travel
Content is directional.
Check official embassy or government sources before making any decisions. Official sources are sparse and agent agreement is low. Not a pipeline failure.
Conflict Resolution
Most travel resources pick one answer and hide the rest. We show you the full picture, including where sources disagree and why.
The Thai immigration site says 30 days. A Nomad List thread from last month reports officers asking for proof of onward travel. Both are real data points. Choosing one and burying the other is how people get caught off guard. Every brief includes a conflict report: confirmed, contested, and unverified. Nothing hidden.
Community Intel
Official sources tell you the rules. Community sources tell you what is actually happening.
Border enforcement changes faster than government websites update. Overstay crackdowns, new document checks at specific crossings, officers asking for proof of funds the rules do not require. This is where it shows up first. We include community sources not to override official rules, but to flag where reality is diverging from the rulebook. You should know that before you land.
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