Two years ago, after Vlad Shipilov, a Russian immigrant, relocated to Portugal, he encountered a setback when his business visa application was denied. This denial resulted from his lawyer’s lack of awareness regarding specific requirements for visa applications originating from Russia. Eventually, it took a total of $16,000 in expenses, active participation in immigration groups on Telegram and Facebook, and assistance from a Portugal-based friend to secure Shipilov’s visa and residency.
Shipilov swiftly realized that his ordeal was not an isolated incident. He discovered a prevalent issue within the immigration support market, characterized by numerous “handlers” and scammers. For example, Portuguese passive-income visa consulting agencies charged exorbitant fees ranging from $3,000 to $8,000, while lawyers demanded fees between $800 and $1,000, without offering any guarantees. Shipilov firmly believed that the immigration process should be inspiring rather than stressful and costly.
In response, Shipilov, along with his Portugal-based friend Sergey Kotlov, initiated a mission to assist immigrants by providing free guides, chat support, and access to affordable or complimentary consultations with lawyers. This grassroots effort eventually evolved into a business called MigRun, with the goal of expanding their support to various countries and diverse immigrant groups.
MigRun, a participant in the Startup Battlefield 200 competition at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, offers tailored assistance to individuals immigrating to new countries, drawing insights from the experiences of other immigrants. MigRun amalgamates immigration cases and employs technology and analysis to provide users with free guides, instructions, deadline reminders, and alerts.
Shipilov emphasized, “We aspire to offer the same level of predictability and security as expensive handlers but at a fraction of the cost and in a fully digital format. Our aim is to empower individuals from developing countries to handle their immigration independently, eliminating the need for substantial payments for basic advice based solely on one person’s experience.”
While MigRun is not the only platform facilitating communication between immigrants and experts for visa applications, it distinguishes itself through the breadth and depth of its offerings, as well as its commitment to automation.
MigRun caters not only to immigrants from specific countries but also to groups of people relocating from one country to another, such as Morocco to Italy, Russia to Italy, or Turkey to Italy. Users can engage with individuals who have undergone similar processes in their home countries or countries of residence, or interact with a conversational assistant trained on analogous cases and publicly available visa requirements.
Shipilov explained, “Our primary objective is to establish a network of immigration assistants who exclusively operate through our platform. We possess comprehensive data on thousands of immigration cases and anticipate handling tens of thousands more in the future. This data encompasses complete immigrant profiles, all documents used in visa and residence permit applications (including passports, birth certificates, and bank records), chat logs of interactions between immigrants and our assistants, and more. We maintain this data up-to-date, enabling us to promptly adapt to changes in consulate or immigration office requirements. We also track application outcomes, including approvals and rejections, along with the reasons for any denials.”
MigRun offers a range of both paid and free immigration resources.
To enhance its services, MigRun employs this data to train its conversational assistant, aptly named Virtual Assistance. Shipilov claimed that the assistant can even account for bias in immigration decisions, such as discrepancies between an immigration officer’s interpretation of the law and the standard interpretation.
Shipilov stated, “Thanks to our extensive dataset, our assistant can offer highly specific advice, such as how to apply for a Portuguese Digital Nomad visa in Istanbul, for instance. In most cases, it’s more effective to tailor your application to match the preferences of the specific officer or immigration office you’re dealing with, rather than engaging in disputes. This can save both time and money.”
Given the sensitive nature of the data involved, particularly for immigrants residing in countries with poor human rights records, Shipilov assured that MigRun maintains the anonymity of immigrants’ identities and refrains from sharing personal data with third-party service providers unless there is a clear and necessary reason. However, the platform retains this data for a period of at least 90 days, up to one year, unless a user requests earlier deletion.
Regarding MigRun’s data retention policy, Shipilov stated, “Our principle is straightforward: we do not sell personal data.”
Up to this point, MigRun has been entirely self-funded. Shipilov claimed that the startup boasts over 3,900 customers and 16,000 monthly active users.
In the near future, MigRun’s focus will be on expansion. Over the next year, the seven-employee startup plans to add support for more countries, invest in product development for the AI assistant and automation aspects, and increase its annual revenue to $3 million (with $800,000 earned in the first 12 months).
Shipilov explained, “Currently, we maintain a 50% profit margin, but we aim to increase it to 70% by the end of 2024 and 90% by 2025 through the utilization of AI assistants, automation, and the reduction of consultant roles. With over 100 million people immigrating annually from developing countries, even capturing just 3% to 5% of the $12 billion market could enable us to assist millions of professionals, entrepreneurs, digital nomads, talented individuals, passive income holders, and families in finding better opportunities, fundamentally transforming their lives, and saving billions of dollars.”
