How the data works

Two layers with different provenance, verified differently and labeled differently in every API response.

Layer 1: visa verdicts

The base verdict (visa-free, e-visa, visa required, …) for each of the 39,402 passport→destination pairs derives from an aggregated visa-requirement matrix, a secondary source refreshed from its upstream and stamped as the dataset version. Verdicts are never claimed to be officially verified per pair; API responses label them secondary_source_only.

Layer 2: curated entry rules

Passport validity, blank pages, onward tickets, yellow fever, transit programs, residence-permit exemptions and official application portals are curated per destination. Every non-empty field cites an official government source: {name, url, retrieved_at}. Third-party visa sites are never used as sources.

Daily verification

Verification runs in two tiers, every day:

• Tier 1: automated change detection. Every cited source URL (~530 unique official pages) is fetched nightly and its content fingerprinted. A destination's last_verified date advances only when every one of its cited pages is demonstrably unchanged since the last observation. Nothing is bumped on faith.
• Tier 2: agent review. Pages whose content changed, pages that stopped resolving, and a rotating slice of all destinations get a full re-read against the stored rules. Genuine changes update the rule (citing the same authority); ambiguity sets needs_review; every outcome is recorded in the public change feed.

Rules older than 120 days are reported as stale in per-response verification blocks. Staleness is disclosed, not hidden.

Safety rules the pipeline enforces

• A rule is never deleted because its page is unreachable. It is flagged.
• A change from visa-required toward visa-free requires a second official source before it is applied.
• Unknown is served as unknown. The API never guesses.
• Every data commit passes a regression suite (58 pinned routes, structural invariants) and coverage-floor assertions (no field class may silently shrink) before it can deploy.

Check the claims

All of the above is observable: /transparency publishes coverage, citation counts and freshness computed from the served dataset; /changes.json lists verification events; /stats.json carries the live counters; and status.canienter.com probes the API every minute. Contact: api@canienter.com.

Guidance for planning. Verify with official sources before travel · Dataset version 2026-08-12