Ask HN: VisaEase.com - TurboTax for Immigration Startup - Please Review | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: VisaEase.com - TurboTax for Immigration Startup - Please Review

6 pointsjgill9 comments

I'm trying to get some feedback on my project and now startup (we have our first paid team member now!) VisaEase.com. I've tried getting some HN feedback before, but I think my heading was not enticing enough.

Friends, non-Romans, internet people...I come to you bearing a link to the project and now company I've been working on the last few years (it's completely bootstrapped and we're ramping up) asking for advice in a combination of a Show HN and Ask HN. I wanted to see if I could get your feedback on what is certainly not a weekend project.

I present to you VisaEase: http://www.visaease.com

If you could spare a moment to check it out, I'm hoping to get feedback on the site in general and specifically: - Ways to increase customer conversion - Any suggestions on how to reach the right audience of people ready to emigrate?

- Many of the site's visitors are early on in the immigration process and not yet ready for our services.

- Suggestions on ways to improve the site design, especially the homepage which I think may need a redesign

- What do you think about the style of the copy on the site? - We created all the copy, videos, etc. ourselves and wanted to get some outside opinions from pros and semi-pros to this part of marketing

- Do you know anyone that would be interested in freelance infographic design work (I/we have lots of interesting stats to share, but want to do so in a fun and hopefully aesthetically pleasing way)?

- Know anyone that may be interested in investing in the immigration space with a qualified team that really knows the area?

Thank you in advance and good luck with your startups as well.

Hey Jonathan, some quick fly-by points from a marketing perspective. Only had a few minutes to review, but you can contact me to chat more about this:

- The call-to-action on the main page is... Not clear. What's the main thing you want a visitor to do? Is it to click "Get Started," or "Why VisaEase," or "View a Video"? (BTW, "View a Video" is really vague... Maybe "See How it Works" with a small "play" icon to indicate it's a video.) Whatever the main action is, it needs to be way more prominent.

- You can probably squeeze more conversions out of the service pages (also SEO landing pages, I'm assuming) by:

    - getting rid of the weird large text image and replacing it with actual text and call-to-action button.

    - using the sidenav more wisely. "Related links" don't encourage action as much as the testimonials or the 100% guarantee*, so they should be re-ordered accordingly. BTW, the testimonial byline (name) is a link with no target... confusing.

- You can probably decrease form drop-offs by properly setting people's expectations. I was surprised to be thrown into what looks like a long and tedious application, which doesn't even look like the site I came from. Also in some cases you call it a "free consultation" and in others a "free application." Which is it? I'm guessing you get a lot of drop-offs in the first step because of false or missing expectations.

* In fact, that 100% guarantee should be way at the top, next to your phone number. That's a huge comforting factor.

Totally random issues:

- On the Immigration FAQs page, the Fiance Visa and Green Card item links to a lorem ipsum URL: http://www.visaease.com/visa-topics/in-vehicula-sapien-in-li...

- On the Service Offering chart, at bottom-left, "receipt" is misspelled as "reciept."

- For your service offering levels, "Platinum" is misspelled as "Platinium."

Thank you so much for the feedback! We'll take all of it into account. Making some changes as I type.

You are missing a few use cases.

1. The employment based conversion to a green card process.

2. The current setup seems to be designed from the perspective of someone who is being sponsored by a U.S. citizen (marriage or family based). E.g. I went through the process of selecting "Adjustment of status". Now the AoS happens in situations other than sponsorship. E.g. I got a diversity lottery and then did an adjustment of status here in the U.S.

In general, if you really have a background of well qualified immigration attorneys, you really need to leverage that know how in the process. The visa process is as much art as it is science. E.g. when I went for the visa interview, the only question he asked me was for my pay stub. Not really a super necessary document in this situation because I was eligible (by virtue of having a Masters degree) for this process. This sort of preparation comes not from reading the application but having know how through experience.

Also $79 is rather low if the objective is "End to end Green card application support". I frankly would be skeptical as to how good the support will be. This is not to say that there aren't lawyers who take $10K and do nothing. But you really need to up your price point to take into account the fact that there is a psychological belief that the best lawyer is an expensive one.

Thank you! Yes, we are likely going to raise prices due to perception. We offer free review by an immigration attorney or paralegal as well, but people seem to be in disbelief at our current prices. Seems odd, but raising prices is something we've considered.

We're thinking about entering the employment based space as well.

Thanks again for the advice.

Also, I don't know how good you guys are as lawyers but really you should emphasize the hell out of that more: connect to avvo reviews, background information. Right now, the site looks like a DIY guide to the green card. While that may be the intention, you should probably rejig it such that the lawyer bit gets emphasized.

It also depends on your target demographic. If your target demographic is nice clean cases of U.S. citizens sponsoring their wives or whatever, then I think you are good. If not, make it look more "lawyery" will only help.

This is interesting and potentially very helpful for people trying to navigate the U.S. immigration system (I know how hard it can be, having navigated the bureaucracy with my spouse, from resident visa to naturalization).

I have a few questions:

Does this service have to conform to any laws or regulations governing immigration services, or the collection of data related to visa applications, change of status, naturalization, etc.?

What sorts of representations are you making if/when something goes wrong/gets lost/gets delayed?

Are you working with an immigration law firm?

We have a full time immigration attorney working for the company and are setting up a separate law firm. We offer a 100% accuracy and satisfaction guarantee or your money back. We are thinking about offering far more than your money back (e.g. insurance and $1,000 if we make any errors), but that requires some administration and additional legal aspects.

Looks professional, my feedback is to reduce/simplify words on homepage box and consider using bold.

Example: "1. Verifies your application process and checks for any issues"

could be..

"1. <bold>Verify:</bold>Find errors automatically"

http://www.visaease.com

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