2026-09-04 · 2 min read
Visas, honestly: what an agency can and cannot do
Anybody who promises you a visa is telling you something they cannot know. Here is the part we do control.
The single most common thing we are asked to promise is the one thing no agency anywhere can promise. A visa is a decision made by a consular officer about you, on the day, using criteria they are not obliged to explain. What an agency controls is everything that happens before that decision — and that is worth more than it sounds.
What we actually do
- Confirm the current rules for your specific passport, in writing, before you commit any money. Rules for this region change without much notice and a blog post from last year is not evidence.
- Produce the supporting file in the format the consulate expects — invitation letters, confirmed accommodation, the itinerary, the return ticket — rather than a folder of screenshots.
- Tell you the real lead time, including the weeks the consulate is closed for its own public holidays, not just the published processing time.
- Sequence the application against your bookings so that nothing non-refundable is paid before the decision, wherever the itinerary allows it.
- Tell you when we think an application is weak, and what would strengthen it.
What we do not do
We do not submit on your behalf where the consulate requires you in person, we do not fill in a form with information you have not given us, and we never suggest that a declaration should say anything other than the truth. An agency that offers any of those is offering you a problem that arrives later.
The one thing to decide early
Lead time. Almost every visa problem we have seen in nine years was really a calendar problem: an application started three weeks before departure that needed six. Give us your dates before you fall in love with a hotel, and the visa stops being the risk in the trip.
