Two years ago, Vlad Shipilov, a Russian immigrant, encountered significant challenges when moving to Portugal. His business visa application was denied due to his lawyer's lack of knowledge regarding visa requirements specific to Russian applicants. After investing $16,000, joining immigration support groups on Telegram and Facebook, and receiving guidance from a friend in Portugal, Shipilov finally secured his visa and residency.
It didn't take long for Shipilov to realize that his struggles were not isolated.
“I discovered there are many 'handlers' and scammers in this space,” Shipilov shared in an email interview. “For example, consulting agencies for Portuguese passive-income visas can charge $3,000 to $8,000, while lawyers typically request $800 to $1,000, but none offer guarantees. Immigration should be a source of inspiration, not stress, and it shouldn't cost a fortune for basic guidance.”
Determined to help others navigate this complicated process, Shipilov, along with his friend Sergey Kotlov, began creating free resources, offering chat support, and connecting immigrants with affordable or complimentary legal consultations. They eventually launched Migrun, a platform designed to extend their support to a wider array of countries and immigrant communities.
Participating in Startup Battlefield at 2023, Migrun offers tailored assistance for those immigrating to new countries, leveraging lessons learned from fellow immigrants. The platform collects various immigration cases and combines technology and analysis to create free guides, timely reminders, and alerts.
“Our goal is to provide the same level of predictability and security in the immigration process as expensive services, but at up to seven times less cost and with a money-back guarantee,” Shipilov stated. “We want to empower individuals from developing countries to manage their own immigration without feeling pressured to pay large sums for basic advice.”
Migrun isn't alone in offering immigrants a pathway to expert advice and visa application assistance. Other platforms, such as Boundless— which recently acquired two immigration technology startups, Bridge and RapidVisa— and Lawfully, provide similar support.
What sets Migrun apart is its comprehensive platform and its strong emphasis on automation, Shipilov believes. The service targets not only specific immigrant groups but also various demographic shifts, such as those moving from Morocco to Italy or Turkey to Italy. Users can connect with individuals who have undergone the same immigration process or utilize a conversational assistant trained on similar cases and publicly accessible visa requirements.
“Our primary mission is to build a network of immigration aides exclusively through our platform,” Shipilov explained. “We maintain detailed records for thousands of immigration cases, anticipating future growth into tens of thousands. This comprehensive data includes profiles of immigrants, necessary documentation for visa and residency applications (like passports and birth certificates), chat logs of all interactions, and more. We ensure this information is current, so we can quickly adapt to any updates in consulate or immigration office requirements.”
Migrun employs this extensive dataset to train its conversational assistant, aptly named Virtual Assistance. Shipilov claims it can account for biases that may arise in immigration decisions, such as differing interpretations of laws by officers.
“Thanks to our rich data, our assistant can provide highly specific guidance on matters like applying for a Portuguese Digital Nomad visa from Istanbul,” Shipilov mentioned. “In many situations, it’s more effective to adjust your application to align with a specific officer or immigration office’s preferences than to contest their viewpoint. This can lead to significant time and cost savings.”
Given the sensitivity of the data Migrun manages, particularly for users from countries with poor human rights records, privacy is a top priority. Shipilov assures that the platform keeps immigrants' identities confidential and does not share personal data with third parties without clearly stating the need. While the platform retains data for at least 90 days and up to a year, users can request earlier deletion.
When asked to clarify the data retention policy, Shipilov stated, “Our guiding principle is straightforward: We don’t sell personal data.”
Migrun has been entirely bootstrapped thus far and currently boasts over 3,900 customers with 16,000 monthly active users. The startup is focused on growth in the coming year, aiming to expand support for additional countries, enhance its AI assistant and paperwork automation, and increase annual revenue to $3 million. (Migrun reports earning $800,000 in its first year.)
“We have a 50% profit margin currently, but we aim to raise it to 70% by the end of 2024 and 90% in 2025 through enhanced AI assistants, automation, and streamlining consultant roles,” Shipilov noted. “With over 100 million individuals from developing countries immigrating yearly, capturing just 3% to 5% of the $12 billion market would enable us to assist millions of professionals, entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and families in finding better opportunities, transforming their lives, and saving significant amounts of money.”
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