The idea came from the trenches.

After years leading cross-border investment processes — moving capital, businesses and people between jurisdictions — the same blocker kept showing up on every deal: the visa question. Programmes that looked open on paper were closed in practice. WhereToEmigrate is the system I wished we'd had on those deals.

1,941
Visa pathways
200+
Countries scored
99%
Cited to gov source
72h
Mid-cycle SLA

After years leading cross-border investment processes for clients moving capital, businesses and themselves between jurisdictions, the same blocker kept showing up on every deal: the visa question. Programmes that looked open on paper were closed in practice; income floors moved between drafts; a single mis-stated threshold could cost a quarter of negotiation.

Antonio leads product and methodology — the visa-matching scoring engine, the 1,941-programme database against gazetted government sources, and the framework that ranks countries on the MOVE / DELAY / AVOID verdict. A small development team builds and maintains the database, the engine and the customer infrastructure behind it.

The platform is engineered to produce a decision, not a list of options. Most emigration sites inform; few decide. We chose the harder problem.

"Sophisticated clients were committing real money to a path that, with thirty minutes of structured data, was visibly wrong from the start. We built the system we wished we'd had."

Every threshold, fee and processing time in the database links to a named government URL. Where the data is incomplete, the report says so. Where the scoring engine is unvalidated against real outcomes, the methodology page says so. The limits are on the box.

A.M.
Antonio Mira Founder · last methodology review Q2 2026
Editorial standards

Six rules we refuse to break.

Not values on a wall. The contract we sign with every reader who pays €10 for a verdict.

01

Three answers only. No "it depends."

The verdict commits: MOVE, DELAY, or AVOID. No five-star gradients to dodge the call. If a profile is borderline, we score it and tell you why — not what you want to hear.

3 verdicts · 0 hedges
02

Every number carries its receipt.

Each fee, income floor and processing time links to the named government URL it was lifted from. If a programme can't show one, it doesn't enter the database — not as a "draft," not as a "forthcoming." It doesn't ship.

99% with named source URL
03

Friday-gazette to Monday-database.

If a country gazettes a fee bump, a new income floor or a programme suspension mid-quarter, the database is patched within 72 hours and the change is logged at /changelog with the source URL and capture date.

72h mid-cycle SLA
04

Zero paid placements. Forever.

No country, agency, law firm or programme operator ranks higher because they sent us a wire. We do not sell positions in the verdict. The day we do is the day the report stops being worth €10.

0 affiliate kickbacks
05

The limits are on the box.

Two known gaps — the scoring engine isn't yet validated against real outcome data, and Numbeo cost-of-living is fair-use research pending commercial licence — are stated, in plain English, on the methodology page. Before you pay.

2 gaps · publicly disclosed
06

Wrong number, free reissue.

Find a material inaccuracy verifiable against the source we cite, and the report is corrected and reissued at €0. The contributor is credited by name in the changelog (or anonymously, if preferred). A guarantee, not a marketing line.

€0 to customer · always
How a programme reaches the database

From gazette to verdict.

One source-of-truth chain. No "team consensus" hand-waving in the middle.

Step 01 · Source

Locate the government gazette

A programme only enters the database with a named, fetchable URL on a .gov or equivalent official domain. Embassy summaries don't count. Consultant blog posts don't count.

Step 02 · Extract

Read it. Translate it. Type it in by hand.

Income floors, fee structures, processing windows, dependant rules. Currency is normalised to EUR at the gazetted rate. No scraping; the source is human-read because the wording matters.

Step 03 · Score

Run the matching engine

14 user inputs × the programme's eligibility schema → a single score from 0–100 and a MOVE / DELAY / AVOID verdict. Every weight is published in the methodology page.

Step 04 · Ship

Publish · log · re-check at 90 days

Versioned in the changelog with the source URL and date of capture. Re-verified on the next quarterly sweep, or within 72h of a mid-cycle policy change.

Make it better

Found something wrong, or writing about us?

Two routes — for contributors and for press. Both go to humans, not a bot.

Found something wrong?

Help us fix it.

Found a programme we've missed, a fee we've mis-stated, or an income threshold we've mis-converted? Send the receipt and we'll fix it. Most updates ship within 24 hours.

  • The programme ID, or country + name
  • The official government URL contradicting our value
  • The corrected value (in the source's units)

Logged at /changelog. Contributor credited by name (or anonymously, if preferred).

Journalists & researchers

Citation & press.

Canonical attribution: "WhereToEmigrate · wheretoemigrate.io/data-sources"

For interview requests, fact-checks, or licensing inquiries — the press kit lives at /press with quotable stats and brand assets.

  • Quotable stats & brand assets at /press
  • Full source list at /data-sources
  • Methodology & weights at /methodology
Honesty about the edges

What we are not.

Two things this is not — said plainly, up front, before you pay for anything.

×
Not an immigration law firm

We don't submit applications or represent applicants. Reports are research artefacts, not legal advice. Engage qualified counsel before financial commitment.

×
Not a financial advisor

Cost-of-living, tax, and salary figures are for orientation. Personal financial decisions warrant a CFP or tax adviser licensed in the relevant jurisdiction.

Run the engine on your profile.

The standards aren't a marketing piece. They're what the verdict you're about to get is built on.

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