My side project
Web and SaaS
travel visa lookup
SHOW HN2013
248points
158comments
#51of 1,739 in 2013
Top 3%of 2013 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
20 positive, 42 neutral or asking, 12 mixed, 31 critical, out of 105 comments about the project. Thread score -0.09.
Execution: 2 for, 16 againstIdea: 12 for, 1 againstDesign: 3 for, 7 againstDocs: 1 for, 4 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful, clean interface for quick visa checks.
From 4 comments
This is really cool, and the info is super-useful. However, your SEO links at the bottom of the page make your site look unnecessarily spammy, especially because the color and…
stevenp on HNYes! Simple and useful for me (I travel a lot, was looking up this kind of info yesterday). I would change up the background since its a bit distracting. Congrat on shipping!
frankdenbow on HNThanks for making this! I'm making travel plans right now and it's quite handy.
sobbybutter on HNWow, thanks. That's one of the question I often couldn't find an answer for and thusly has kept me from travelling a few times. :)
phryk on HN
Objections
Data is incomplete; many country pairs show no information.
From 4 comments
Humm ... Doesn't work for a huge number of things I entered: Have a lot of friends and family in Asia, and too many answers are "dunno, sorry".
chipmunkninja on HNTried Australian going to Morocco and China. "Sorry, we've no information available." Could've got more data in there before playing your "Show HN" card maybe.
prawn on HNUnited States -> China (a pretty important route that does require a visa) says no information.
gottagetmac on HNI tried a few destinations and found no information for any of them (from Canada/France to China/Taiwan for example). Also, "French Guyana" doesn't have different requirements…
seszett on HN
Some entries are incorrect, such as the US to China route and Schengen pairs.
From 3 comments
United States -> China (a pretty important route that does require a visa) says no information.
gottagetmac on HNA quick rule of thumb for European Union member states: no visas are needed for any EU citizen to go any other EU country (as a tourist). It shows that I need a visa to go from…
drazvan on HNNice work! Noticed one issue though: did a US Citizen -> Brazil check and it said I didn't need a visa but then says I do need one.
yesimahuman on HN
Sources and data maintenance are unclear.
From 2 comments
Here's why I don't understand the point of a site like this. I don't know anything about the site. I don't know if it's accurate. I don't know if it's maintained. I can't trust…
danellis on HNI wonder how you keep the visa requirements up to date. I've worked on a visa project before and I know that visa requirements change all the time and there's no central place to…
TheBindingVoid on HN
Requests
Show a map of visa-free destinations.
From 2 comments
I don't understand the presentation. Allow the user to choose nationality from a drop down box, then show a world map colored various ways: - green no visa - blue for easy to…
wting on HNAmazing idea, but you probably need more data. I got married recently and we haven't got around to our honeymoon yet. I did a few queries which were relevant to me and they…
munimkazia on HN
Add crowdsourced comments or a public API.
From 2 comments
This is awesome! You should also add the ability to post comments about visas and the visa process, since in my experience, some border crossing agents try to overcharge you and…
sav-henderson on HNAwesome idea and it works great. What would be really cool is providing a public API. I'm working on building a site that list conferences and this would be really beneficial to…
anonfunction on HN
Questions
How is the data kept up to date?
From 2 comments
GREAT idea. I travel with my girlfriend often and it's a massive pain to work out visa requirements in countries, especially with "com" companies now setting up pretending to be…
redact207 on HNI wonder how you keep the visa requirements up to date. I've worked on a visa project before and I know that visa requirements change all the time and there's no central place to…
TheBindingVoid on HN
Where does the data come from?
From 2 comments
This is awesome. Where did you get all the data from btw?
wyclin on HNThis is pretty cool. How long did it take you to build, and what were your sources of the data? And also, just out of curiosity, what prompted you to create this project? Was it…
bratsche on HN
Alternatives named
Visamapper
From 2 comments
So about a year ago, I created Visamapper(www.visamapper.com) for the same purpose.I ended up crowdsourcing the data. Slightly different take on the interface as your project.…
udit99 on HNYour suggestion sounds exactly like <Shameless_plug> Visamapper (www.visamapper.com) </Shameless_plug> But DoIneedAVisaFor is a more direct way to answer the question if you…
udit99 on HN
DoYouNeedVisa
From 1 comment
Interesting project. Outside of interface choices, are there any differences between this and some of the existing offerings like DoYouNeedVisa[1] or VisaMapper[2] (which is…
opinicus on HN
VisaHQ
From 1 comment
Serves the same purpose as http://www.visahq.com/, but it would nice to see a better presentation.
vette982 on HN