Policy database methodology

Scope and selection

Release WIMA-POL-2026-10-02 contains 12 reviewed route records across 10 jurisdictions. Coverage is selective; an absent jurisdiction or route is not evidence that no policy exists.

Selection is editorial. It is designed to show different legal outcomes and economic mechanisms, including current, paused and legacy routes. It is not a market catalogue and does not imply endorsement.

WIMA excludes routes that cannot be described from official material with a sufficiently clear identity. It does not infer that an unlisted route is unavailable.

Source protocol

1. Use legislation, official gazettes, administering-authority pages, official application services and published government guidance.
2. Record the issuer, page or instrument title, URL and access date for every source.
3. Attach source identifiers to each published status, condition and material claim.
4. Do not use intermediary summaries to establish a fact in this release.
5. Where current official sources conflict, preserve the conflict and qualify the field instead of silently choosing one source.

A1

Binding instruments such as legislation, regulations, decrees and official gazettes.

A2

Formal decisions, official notices, registers and signed or versioned authority documents.

B1

Responsible-authority service pages, application portals and current official guidance.

B2

Official FAQs, consular pages, news releases and explanatory statements.

The tier describes the source, not the importance of the claim. Operational evidence does not override a controlling legal instrument.

Status taxonomy

Legal status

Whether the governing route is in force, expired, repealed or not established from the cited sources.

Intake status

Whether new applications are accepted, limited, paused or confined to a transition.

Operational status

Whether the responsible administrative process is operating at the cut-off.

A route may remain legally in force while intake is paused. A closed route may also retain a limited settlement transition. The database therefore does not use a generic “active” status.

Missing and qualified information

Not established

The review could not verify the proposition from the cited official material.

Not stated

The reviewed route sources do not state the field.

Not applicable

The field does not apply to the route outcome or current status.

Conditional

The proposition depends on eligibility, another process or continuing compliance.

Official sources conflict

Current official sources give materially different answers and the discrepancy has not been resolved.

Missing values are retained in record pages and exports. They are not converted to zero, “no” or a favourable assumption.

Review and freshness

Each record states its last verified date and next review due date. Intake and operating conditions are normally scheduled for review within 30 days. Medium-volatility criteria are reviewed at least every 90 days. Stable historical transitions may be scheduled annually.

An overdue review date means the record requires re-verification. It does not by itself establish that the underlying policy changed.

Versioning and corrections

Every public release has an immutable release identifier, schema version, method version and cut-off. Each route record also has a stable route ID and a release-specific record-version ID.

Corrections are issued in a new release. Downloads include a checksum and field notes so that a cited file can be identified. WIMA preserves the distinction between a correction to WIMA's record and a policy change by an authority.

To report an error, use the contact page and identify the route, field, source and observed discrepancy.

Editorial responsibility

The responsible publisher is the World Investment Migration Association. Publication records the source and field checks applied to this release; it does not make WIMA the deciding authority for any application.

View the release coverage and downloads.