Author
Loris Mazloum
Founder, SimpleVisa
Loris Mazloum founded SimpleVisa and writes the coverage notes on this blog for airlines, OTAs, and other travel companies. Each note is checked against the government source named at the bottom before it publishes. SimpleVisa keeps requirement data for 190+ destinations and files applications where a government channel exists.
Coverage
ESTA Fee Rises to $40.62 from 16 October 2026: What OTAs and Airlines Need to Update
DHS's FY2027 inflation notice (FR 2026-20185) lifts the ESTA fee from $40.27 to $40.62 from 16 Oct 2026; denied applications cost $10.62, EVUS $31.75. What OTAs and airlines must update.
Coverage
CBP Ends Routine Passport Stamps at Primary Inspection: What Airlines and OTAs Need to Change (I-94, APIS)
CBP's 1 Oct 2026 carrier bulletin ends routine admission stamps at primary inspection. The electronic I-94 is the proof. What airlines and OTAs must change in messaging, scripts and APIS data.
Coverage
Turkmenistan Launches Its e-Visa: What OTAs, Tour Operators and Airlines Should Check Before Selling
Turkmenistan moved e-Visa issuance online on 1 Oct 2026. Three categories (e-TU, e-BS, e-HM), no mandatory invitation for tourists, 24 h–7 working days. What OTAs and airlines should verify first.
Coverage
Mainland Tanzania’s Inbound Travel Insurance Is an Entry Control from 1 October 2026 — Not an eVisa Field
From 1 October 2026, foreigners entering Mainland Tanzania need an NIC inbound travel policy or can be refused entry. It is not an eVisa field. What OTAs and airlines should separate from Zanzibar — and from Kenya.
Product
ETAs Fixed Document Validation, and Created a New Denied-Boarding Problem
IATA argues ETAs make validation easier but create traveler confusion and late-discovery failures at check-in. How airlines and OTAs move readiness from the 40-minute window to booking and MMB.
Product
Timatic and modern visa APIs: what each is for
The airline industry's compliance engine has done one job well since 1963. Knowing where that job ends tells you what to run beside it.
Revenue
Visa ancillary revenue: the complete guide
Seats and bags are saturated. The visa line is the rare ancillary with no cost of goods, no ops burden, and a traveler who is actively looking for help.
Coverage
ETIAS moved again. What it changes for anyone selling flights into Europe.
A new start window, a grace period that does most of the work, and one line in your booking flow that has to be right before the first traveler is turned away at the gate.
Product
Elements are free on every model, including the API
Why we stopped charging for the components that bring applications to us in the first place.
Revenue
What a 4% attach rate looks like on 60,000 bookings
The arithmetic behind visa ancillary revenue, using the numbers we actually see.
Engineering
Idempotency keys, and the duplicate charge that never happened
How we made retrying an application POST boring, and why your integration should retry more.
Inside SimpleVisa
How three people track sixty governments
Sources, diffing and the weekly review that turns a circular into an API response.
Product
Coverage alerts: pick destinations, get one email per change
Pick the destinations you sell and hear from us only when one of them changes.
Revenue
Merchant of record, explained for travel teams
Who the traveler is buying from decides whose logo goes on the checkout. Here is why.
Engineering
Six webhooks we send, three you should actually handle
Only three of them change what a traveler sees. Start there, add the rest later.