iVisa Review

Sunday, February 16th

2025 Travel Visa Service Reviews

iVisa

• Good for tourist visas
• In business for 10+ years
• Almost 35,000 five-star reviews
• Decent refund policy

The company iVisa, founded in 2012 by two friends pursuing their MBAs at Harvard Business School, was born out of their own frustrations with the cumbersome visa application process. As avid travelers, they understood the hassle of dealing with government offices and extensive paperwork while trying to balance their growing families. They aimed to create a streamlined solution that would enable hassle-free travel without the need for time-consuming forms or visits to foreign embassies. Since its inception, iVisa has served over one million satisfied customers who appreciate the simplicity of their processes.

Helpful FAQ for newbies

If you're a first-time applicant for a travel visa, you may have questions regarding the necessity of a visa, the application process, and the expected timeframe for obtaining one. iVisa offers a helpful FAQ page to address such concerns and provide clarity. This page covers topics like eVisas, visa validity duration, application status tracking, typical visa processing times, and other essential information.

Isn't always clear with countries' requirements

Using the iVisa site is pretty straightforward. Select the country you're from and your intended destination, and you'll see what's required for that location, including details on government fees. But, here's what we didn't love. We checked out a country that, at the time of this review, wasn't requiring tourist visas for US citizens (Brazil). iVisa told us that - but at the same time, we were pushed to use the service to take care of our health declaration. When we tried to start that process, we were then told no, it wouldn't be necessary until a date in the future when the country was reinstating required tourist visas. It felt very confusing, and if we hadn't already been familiar with the travel visa requirements for that destination, iVisa certainly wouldn't have set our mind at ease.

Visa types limited to tourism

Another drawback we found when using iVisa was not being able to choose among different travel visa types. Not everyone needs a simple tourist visa: some travelers need options for business, missionary work, scientific research, and so on, and we didn't find that kind of help here (despite easily getting it through some of iVisa's rivals in the industry).

Fees vary

What will you pay for iVisa's help in getting your travel visa application processed? That depends on the location and the speed you prefer. For example, if you're traveling to Brazil, you'd pay $35 for standard processing, $65 for rush processing, and $100 for super rush processing - on top of any governmental fees the country requires at the time of your application.

Decent refund policy

iVisa's refund policy is good but a little convoluted. If you decide to cancel your visa application, you can get all of your money back if your status is "received” or "in progress”. Once it switches to "information needed”, your refund amount drops to "up to 90%”, and then down to zero if your visa application reaches "waiting on government” or "complete” status. What if your travel visa application is rejected? Your ability to get a refund from iVisa will depend on what type of service you purchased. Guided visa services - US B1/B2, Australia Visitor, UK Visitor, Canada Visitor, China, and Schengen visas - are all non-refundable if your application is denied, unfortunately. But, other travel visas here are covered by a full refund policy.

Mixed but generally positive client feedback

How about reputation? iVisa has nearly 35,000 five-star reviews on Trustpilot, and most clients wind up happy with the service they receive. People usually describe it as fast and affordable, and they feel that the process of getting their travel visa was made much easier to understand with iVisa's help. But, if you scroll through some of the most recent reviews, not everyone is thrilled with the experience here. Although only 10% of iVisa clients would rate the service as three stars or lower, those less-than-glowing reviews often relate to some of the downsides we mentioned: taking travelers' money for services they might not really need, not offering refunds when clients expected them, or taking weeks (or months) to process visa applications that could be accomplished by applying directly with the destination government's embassy in a matter of days.

Good but not our favorite anymore

iVisa is still a reputable place to get your travel visa - at least, as long as you're traveling as a tourist and not needing a more specialized kind of permission to enter the country. We're encouraged by the fact that 90% of iVisa's clients still give the service a 4- or 5-star rating too. But, with respect to overall clarity on countries' requirements, iVisa has fallen behind some of its competitors and is no longer our highest-ranked option for travel visas. You may want to see what rival services have to offer before deciding on iVisa for your trip.