Group manifests: collecting 40 passports without chasing

A group visa is forty individual applications with one departure date. Every consulate decides each traveller on their own file, so a manifest is only as strong as its weakest passport scan. The agency's job is to collect complete, legible documents early enough that the slowest traveller still clears the guaranteed decision window.

The two deadlines that matter are the biometrics or interview slot (sticker and embassy destinations) and the e-visa submission date. Work back from departure: decision window, plus courier or collection, plus a week of buffer, gives the last safe filing date; the manifest must be complete a week before that.

• Passport bio page with all four corners, six months' validity beyond return
• Photo to the destination's pixel spec, not a cropped selfie
• Per-traveller bank statements or a sponsor letter for family groups
• One itinerary, one hotel list and one flight booking that match across every file
• Travel insurance where the destination requires it

• Collecting documents by WhatsApp: files arrive compressed, out of order and without names
• One traveller's expired passport discovered at the visa centre
• Different travellers listing different hotels or dates
• Chasing by phone instead of a checklist that shows who is missing what

Create the tour once, send one join link. Every traveller lands in your workspace with destination, dates and the checklist pre-filled, uploads their own documents from a phone, and the passport OCR reads the MRZ so expiry and name mismatches are caught on upload.

The board shows who is missing what, sends the two reminders that work (30 and 7 days before departure) and lets you broadcast one message to everyone or nudge the stragglers. Group payment covers all travellers in one checkout with per-traveller receipts.