How I built a self-updating visa database from 13,507 passport-destination pairs

Description and use

A continuously updated visa database for 13,507 passport‑destination pairs, refreshed in real time via a policy‑monitoring script. The data is available as JSON and through a public lookup tool, simplifying visa checks for global teams.

Problem

International onboarding teams repeatedly needed up-to-date visa and stay-limit information for thousands of passport–destination combinations, but existing travel sites updated only annually and were often inaccurate.

Outcome

The project delivers a continuously updated, accurate visa database that reduces onboarding effort, eliminates guesswork, and supports travel planning tools.

Workflow

• 1. Gather passport–destination pairs from public sources.
• 2. Create a structured schema with fields for visa-free status, stay limits, eTA/ESTA, eVisa, visa-required flag, and digital nomad visa.
• 3. Implement a policy-monitoring script that watches US Federal Register and government visa-policy feeds for changes.
• 4. Flag and update affected pairs automatically as new policy data appears.
• 5. Publish the dataset as JSON on GitHub and build a public lookup tool (entrypolicies.com) for instant queries.
• 6. Provide additional tools: passport power rankings, Schengen 90/180-day explanation, and country-by-country entry requirements.
• 7. Offer bilingual (EN/ES) interfaces to serve Spanish-speaking users.
• 8. Encourage community feedback and data improvements via GitHub.

Evidence

Most travel sites update this data once a year. That's not fast enough for anyone doing real travel planning or logistics.

Source

The whole thing is driven by a policy-monitoring script that watches US Federal Register and government visa-policy sources, so updates get flagged as they happen instead of once a year.

Source