May 10th, 2025
From “Where can I even move?” to “Here are the visas you qualify for.”
Utilities
Workflow Design
Full Product Launch
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
2 months
team
Solo
platform
Mobile
Boundr helps people discover visa opportunities they qualify for, compare immigration pathways, and confidently explore life abroad.
The Real Problem
This project started from a personal experience.
I was in a long-distance relationship with someone from another country, and eventually we reached the point where we wanted to close the distance. Like many international couples, that meant one of us would have to move abroad.
What seemed like a simple question - "Where could we realistically move?" - quickly became overwhelming.
Every country had different immigration pathways, different eligibility requirements, and different government websites. We spent countless hours researching visas, trying to understand what each of us qualified for, only to end up with dozens of tabs, conflicting information, and no clear direction.
Although our relationship eventually ended, the experience exposed a problem that affects far more than international couples. Students, professionals, digital nomads, and families all face the same challenge: discovering which visa opportunities are actually available to them.
The real problem isn't that visa information doesn't exist - it's that it's fragmented, difficult to compare, and built around countries rather than people. Users are expected to know where they want to move before they even understand what opportunities they have.
That's the problem Boundr was designed to solve. It starts with the user, not the destination, helping people discover immigration pathways based on who they are rather than where they happen to search.
Over 300 million people live outside the country they were born in, and that number has nearly doubled since 1990. Yet finding the right visa often means navigating dozens of government websites, each with different rules, terminology, and application processes.
Finding the Fix
The real issue wasn't a lack of visa information - it was that the entire system is built backwards. Every pathway starts with "which country?", forcing users to pick a destination before they even know if they qualify for anything there. Requirements are scattered across dozens of government sites, each in its own format, making it nearly impossible to compare options or judge personal fit.
So Boundr flips the model:
Starts with the person, not the destination. Users enter their own information - age, marital status, job, and more.
Matches it against visa objectives and requirements across countries, instead of one government site at a time.
Surfaces pathways users didn't know existed, not just the ones they thought to search for.
Instead of starting with a destination, Boundr starts with the person.
The Right to Move
Boundr is built on the idea that opportunity shouldn't depend on where you were born. Access to immigration pathways is often reserved for those who can afford lawyers or the time to untangle scattered bureaucracy — Boundr makes it transparent and accessible to anyone. It reframes visas not as barriers to prove yourself worthy of, but as opportunities users may already qualify for and never knew existed. By starting with the person, not the paperwork, Boundr gives people an honest view of their own mobility, and the ability to pursue it on their own.
How does it work?
During onboarding, users share basic information about themselves - age, marital status, occupation, and more. This profile becomes the foundation Boundr uses to filter and personalize every visa shown from that point on.
Users can then browse Boundr's full visa database, with each listing marked as eligible, not eligible, or not applicable based on their profile. Instead of an overwhelming global list, users see a focused shortlist of the visas that actually apply to them.
For each eligible visa, users can view the full requirements beyond the basic filters - the additional criteria they'll still need to meet before applying. This keeps the initial match fast and simple, while making sure users know exactly what's left to check before moving forward.
The Impact
Individuals – Clarity Over Confusion
Students, professionals, and digital nomads no longer have to spend hours parsing scattered government websites to figure out where they stand. Boundr gives them a clear, personalized view of exactly which visas they qualify for, replacing guesswork with a straightforward path forward.
Families & Couples – Keeping People Together
International couples and families facing tough relocation decisions can quickly see where they could realistically build a life together, instead of researching each country in isolation. This turns an overwhelming decision into a manageable one, right when it matters most.
Communities – Access Without Privilege
By making eligibility transparent and centralizing scattered requirements, Boundr levels the playing field for people who can't afford immigration lawyers or consultants. Community-driven accuracy keeps information current, expanding access to real mobility opportunities for everyone, regardless of background or resources.
Design Tools & Inspiration
Boundr was designed in Figma, from early framework to full-screen designs, keeping the interface clean despite the complexity of matching users to visa requirements. For inspiration, I studied Behance for how other designers approach utility apps — clear filtering, status indicators, and dense information that still feels simple to navigate.
From there, I built the app myself in SwiftUI using Xcode. When I hit the limits of my own coding knowledge, I brought in Claude Code to help push through the harder parts of development. I integrated Firebase for authentication and the database, simulated the app on my own phone, and began the submission process to the App Store.
Research & User Insights
Beyond my own experience, the same uncertainty kept coming up in conversations with friends in their early-to-mid twenties - people actively trying to figure out whether they could work or study abroad, and simply not knowing which visa applied to them, or where to even start looking. It wasn't a niche problem; it was something almost everyone in that age range had run into at least once.
Looking at what already existed, most visa tools online fall into two camps: government eligibility wizards built around a single country, or digital-nomad-specific checkers like VisaAI, VisaHQ, and GlobalVisaIndex that only cover remote-work visas. None of them are native mobile apps, none let the community verify or update information, and none adjust as a user's situation changes over time - you fill out the form once and get a static answer. Boundr was built to close that gap: a mobile-first experience that covers all visa types, not just remote work, and treats eligibility as something that evolves with the person, not a one-time quiz result.
Insights drawn from casual conversations with friends and family navigating visas for work, study, and relocation.
"I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO EVEN START"
Every country seemed to have a different student visa process, and there was no way to know which ones matched her field or budget without researching each one individually. She ended up only considering the one or two countries she'd already heard of, ruling out dozens of options that might've fit her better.
"APPARENTLY I ALREADY QUALIFIED FOR THREE"
When he actually sat down and checked, he found he was eligible for several visas he'd never even heard of. He'd been ruling out international work simply because he assumed he wouldn't qualify.
"EVERY LAWYER GAVE US A DIFFERENT ANSWER"
Getting a spousal visa meant paying for consultations just to receive conflicting advice from different immigration lawyers. They had no way to independently verify who was actually right.
"MY EXPERIENCE MEANT NOTHING ON PAPER"
Years of professional experience didn't translate cleanly into the eligibility criteria of the country she wanted to move to, with no clear way to check if she qualified before investing months in the process. She nearly gave up before finding out she was eligible after all.
Onboarding Screens
The app's main screen is an interactive map displaying all nearby refill stations, whether they are public fountains, cafés, or other locations offering free water refills. Users can filter locations based on their needs, such as only fountains, places with wheelchair access, or public restrooms. In addition, there is a search bar that allows users to find specific streets or places according to their needs.
The Main Screens
The home screen leads with a "Top Match" section, surfacing the visa the user is most likely to qualify for based on their profile and recent searches, alongside "Where You Can Go Right Now" for other pathways they currently qualify for, and "Recently Viewed" to quickly return to visas they've already looked at. From there, users can move to the browse page, which holds the full visa database with filters for cost, duration, processing time, visa type, and region, plus a search bar for finding something specific - each visa shown as a card with key details at a glance, so users can gauge fit before tapping in for the full requirements.
Visa Details & Saved Pages
Tapping into a visa opens its full details - cost, processing time, duration, and a short description - alongside the minimum requirements the app used to determine eligibility, plus the additional requirements the user still needs to meet, from income thresholds to a clean record or a driving license. From there, users can save any visa they're interested in and revisit it later from the Saved page, keeping track of every option worth pursuing without having to search for it again.
From Design to App Store
Once the designs were locked in Figma, I built Boundr myself in SwiftUI using Xcode - a deliberate choice to understand the product beyond the interface, not just hand it off as static screens. When I hit the edges of my own coding ability, I brought in Claude Code to help push through the harder parts of development, and integrated Firebase for authentication and the database. After simulating and testing the app directly on my own phone, I went through the full submission process and got Boundr live on the App Store. It's a small thing to say, but going from Figma file to a real, installable app - one that handles real user data and a real approval process - taught me more about product thinking than any mockup could. Feel free to look it up on the App Store and download it yourself.
Bringing Boundr to Life
Beyond the product itself, I designed a set of Instagram promo visuals to introduce Boundr and its core flow - Share, Discover, Apply - in a format built for quick, scrollable consumption. Each card translates a real screen from the app into a simple, story-driven visual, walking a potential user through the exact same journey they'd have inside the product: telling Boundr about themselves, discovering the visas they qualify for, and applying with confidence. Designing the launch content alongside the app meant the visual language - colors, typography, tone - stayed consistent from first impression to first use, extending the product's design system into how it's actually marketed and discovered.
The future is filled with opportunities
Smart Notifications & Deadline Alerts
Future updates could introduce notifications that alert users the moment they become newly eligible for a visa - after a birthday, a new job, or a change in marital status - without needing to re-check manually. Application deadline reminders and policy-change alerts would keep users informed if a country updates its requirements after they've already found a match. This turns Boundr from a one-time lookup into an ongoing tool that watches opportunities on the user's behalf.
Verified Partner Network
Boundr could connect users to a vetted network of immigration lawyers and consultants once they've found a visa worth pursuing, offering discounted or priority reviews through the app. Users could rate and review partners based on their experience, keeping the network accountable and useful for others. This gives users a trusted next step once self-service research reaches its limit.
Government & Embassy Partnerships
Collaborating with embassies, consulates, and immigration authorities could give Boundr access to official, continuously updated requirement data, reducing reliance on manual research alone. Such partnerships could also streamline the process further, potentially allowing users to begin applications directly through the app. Over time, this would position Boundr as a recognized bridge between everyday users and the institutions that actually issue these visas.
The change