Add your travel docs (passport, visas, ESTA, etc.) once → app sends 6-month / 90-day / 30-day / 7-day expiry reminders by email + push. Plus AI Q&A: "Can I enter Thailand on my US passport with 5 months validity?" — Claude answers from public IATA Travel Centre + embassy data, with citation links.
Problem
Travelers miss passport expiry windows (most countries require 6-month validity); visas, ESTA, Global Entry, driver's license — each has its own expiry. No tool unifies all travel documents with proactive reminders. People discover at the airport. Public data on visa requirements is scattered across embassy sites.
Audience
Frequent travelers (3+ international trips/year), expat communities, digital nomads. ~80M frequent international travelers globally. WTP: $0 free for first 3 docs / $19/yr unlimited + AI visa Q&A.
Reasoning
What we ship
**Core features (MVP)**
- Document schema: passport / visa / ESTA / Global Entry / driver license / travel insurance — each with its own fields (number, country, issue date, expiry, optional encrypted image).
- Smart reminder cadence: 6 months / 90 days / 30 days / 7 days before expiry — push + email, configurable per document.
- AI visa Q&A: "Can I enter Thailand on US passport with 5 months validity?" — Claude answers with RAG over Wikipedia visa-policy + IATA mirrors, always with citation URL.
- One-click delete + export of all data.
- Free tier: 3 documents + basic reminders. Pro: unlimited + AI Q&A + full cadence.
**Primary user flow**
1. User finds us via ProductHunt / SEO "passport expiry reminder".
2. Signs up (email + magic link), adds passport + visa + ESTA — 3 free documents.
3. Gets push "Your US passport expires in 6 months — most countries require 6mo validity" — high-value moment.
4. Wants to add 4th document or AI visa Q&A → upgrade $19/yr.
**What it looks like**
- **Landing**: split hero. Left: "Your passport will expire. The airport gate is the wrong place to find out." Right: animated mockup — document list with countdown badges (red/yellow/green).
- **Main screen**: documents list with status chip (green / yellow / red at 6mo/3mo/30d threshold); tap on doc → details + reminder settings + AI Q&A button.
- **Notification format**: push "US Passport: 90 days until expiry — most countries require 6mo" + email with deep-link.
**MVP build plan (11 days)**
- Day 1-2: FastAPI + Postgres + pgcrypto (column-level AES-256), Celery beat for daily expiry-check, Stripe Subscriptions.
- Day 3-4: Document schema (passport/visa/ESTA/Global Entry/license/insurance), CRUD UI (Flutter mobile + React web).
- Day 5: Reminder engine (6mo/3mo/30d/7d cadence, push via Expo + email via Postmark/SendGrid).
- Day 6-7: Visa Q&A — RAG ingest pipeline for Wikipedia visa-policy pages + IATA Travel Centre open mirrors, Claude Sonnet with citation prompt.
- Day 8: "Verify with embassy" disclaimer integration on every visa Q&A response.
- Day 9: Landing + pricing page + 14-day trial logic.
- Day 10: ProductHunt assets + travel-blogger affiliate dashboard.
- Day 11: Smoke tests, push notification end-to-end test, Stripe webhook production, ship.
Source signals
- `SIG-20260504-global-monitor-alert-tool-travel-doc-expiry-tracker` — Travel Checklist 2026 confirms expired-document gate-stop as classic high-cost travel mistake; UN IOM 2024 reports 280M expats globally; Passport Wallet 500K+ downloads with 1-star "no reminders" reviews — validated wedge
Reasoning
The pain is high-cost: missed passport expiry = non-refundable flight + visa hassle. Passport Wallet has 500K+ downloads with 1-star reviews citing "no reminders" — a literal validated wedge: market exists, current leader failed at the core feature.
Why now: Claude Sonnet 4.6 can answer "can I enter Thailand on US passport with 5 months validity" using public Wikipedia visa-policy pages + IATA Travel Centre open mirrors — no embassy partnerships, no commercial APIs. RAG over Wikipedia visa-policy data with citation links (hallucination guard).
Differentiation: (a) document-first schema (passport, visa, ESTA, Global Entry, driver license — each has its own fields and cadence); (b) smart cadence — 6mo/3mo/30d/7d, not one-shot reminders; (c) AI visa Q&A with citation links — TripIt and App in the Air do not have this; (d) freemium with 3 free docs removes purchase friction.
Gross margin profile: $19/yr × ($1/year LLM Q&A + $0 for reminders) = 95% gross margin. Solo-build in 11 days with Celery beat for daily expiry-check. Zero regulatory friction provided "verify with embassy" disclaimer is strictly maintained.
Quick competitive read
Direct competitors — low-to-medium density (3 named, each with a specific weakness):
- **TripIt Pro** ($49/yr, 19 yrs old): full itinerary aggregator; document tracking is bolt-on; no AI visa Q&A; no per-document configurable reminders.
- **App in the Air** ($59/yr, 14 yrs old): flight tracker primary; weak document-tracking module (passport only, no visas/ESTA/Global Entry); no AI Q&A.
- **Native Calendar** (free, 15 yrs old): manual event entry; no document-specific schema; no smart cadence; no AI; user has to remember to set reminders.
White-space: document-first + smart cadence + AI visa Q&A with citation links — empty.
Initial pricing hypothesis
$0 free up to 3 documents + basic reminders (30d + 7d cadence). $19/yr Pro: unlimited documents + full cadence (6mo/3mo/30d/7d) + AI visa Q&A + email + push. 14-day free trial. Anchored to developed-tier consumer subscription willingness ($10-100/mo taxonomy.yaml) — we are 60% cheaper than TripIt Pro.
Distribution hypothesis
ProductHunt launch + SEO long-tail on "passport expiry reminder app", "when does my ESTA expire". Communities: r/IWantOut, r/ExpatFIRE, r/digitalnomad, r/solotravel, LinkedIn frequent-traveler groups — post "I built X because Passport Wallet doesn't do reminders". Travel-blogger affiliate ($10/conversion) + content marketing on "passport renewal timeline by country" (programmatic SEO).
Source signals (1)
SIG-20260504-global-monitor-alert-tool-travel-doc-expiry-tracker