Methodology
How we verify information
A publishable record needs a primary source, a real check date and an identifiable reviewer. Without those three, the record is not indexed.
1. Source hierarchy
We prioritise foreign ministries, embassies, consulates and official appointment portals. They are the only sources we accept to confirm address, contact, hours, jurisdiction, services and booking links.
A secondary source may alert us to a change, but it never replaces official confirmation of a critical field.
2. Field-level provenance
Every sensitive field stores its source and confidence level: confirmed, inferred or unknown.
We would rather publish “unknown” than fill a gap with a guess. A phone number we cannot confirm is not shown.
3. Verification and dates
The verification date changes only when someone actually checks the listed fields, never on page regeneration or deployment.
We separate four moments: when the change was detected at the source, when it was verified, when it was published and when the value materially changed.
4. Automation with human review
We use tooling to extract, compare, detect changes and prepare drafts.
We do not let automation invent a missing field or infer a jurisdiction. Sensitive changes — address, closure, emergency phone, appointments, fees, jurisdiction and event cancellations — go through human review before publication.
5. Publication states
Every URL carries a per-language state: draft, needs sources, reviewed, indexable, stale, retired or blocked.
Only “indexable” enters main navigation and the sitemap. The full register is public.