Help centre
Frequently asked questions
Everything about using Japa.to — accounts, communities, tools, payments and safety. Pick a topic below or contact us if your question is not covered.
Japa.to is the community platform for people planning, making or settling into an international move. It combines destination communities, a collaboratively maintained wiki, planning tools, structured learning tracks and mentorship — so the whole relocation journey lives in one place.
Anyone at any stage of an international move: people still dreaming, applicants mid-paperwork, new arrivals, and long-settled expats who want to help the next person. The word 'japa' comes from a Nigerian term for emigrating, but the community is open to movers of every origin and destination.
Yes. Creating an account, joining spaces, posting, reading the wiki and using the core planning tools are free. Some optional extras — highlighted listings, certain premium actions — use credits, which are always clearly priced before you spend them.
Most public content — spaces, blog posts, wiki pages, forum threads and the FAQ — is readable without an account. You need a free account to post, comment, follow spaces, save checklists, join planning groups or message other members.
Click Sign up, register with your email or a social sign-in, verify your email and pick a username. Onboarding asks about your journey stage and destinations so your feed is useful from day one — you can change it later in Settings.
Spaces are communities inside Japa.to — organised by country, city, university, profession or interest. Each space has its own feed, forum, members and moderators. Following a space is how you tune your timeline.
The destination wiki is a community-maintained knowledge base covering visas, housing, healthcare, banking and daily life per destination. Pages are versioned and dated; experienced members can propose edits that are reviewed before publishing — so information stays current and accountable.
Browse tags to follow subjects across spaces — e.g. #studentvisa or #jobsearch — and get matching posts in your feed without joining every space.
The forum is for questions and threaded discussion — vote rails, Best/Top/New sorting, marked solutions. The blog hosts long-form articles and series. The story wall is for personal relocation narratives — the wins and the honest setbacks.
Your home timeline has a Following view (spaces and people you follow) and a For You view (ranked by relevance, trending activity and your journey stage). The digest summarizes what you missed.
Use the Compose button, pick a content type (discussion, question, story, article), choose a space, and write. The editor supports @mentions, #tags, rich text, images and embeds. Required-space rules mean every post lands where the right people will see it.
Yes — bookmark any post or wiki page to your bookmarks, and organize saved items into lists. Everything is synced to your account.
Direct messages let you talk one-to-one (mentorship connections open a thread automatically). Notifications cover replies, mentions, follows and moderation updates — tune what you get in Settings → Notifications.
Planning groups are small private groups of people moving to the same destination around the same time, with shared milestones and check-ins. The mutual aid board is for needs, offers and skill swaps — rides, document reviews, temporary storage and the like.
Your profile carries a japa stage — Considering, Planning, Preparing, Applied, Approved, Relocated or Settled. It shapes what content and tools are surfaced to you, and tells the community how to help. Shorter trips use the same arc ending in Traveled and Returned. Update your stage in your profile as you move forward.
Under Tools: a visa checklist builder, readiness assessment, cost-of-living comparison, scholarship finder, remittance rate tracker, credential checker, CV formatter, housing guide, attestation guide, language test hub, tax calculator, arrival checklist, processing-time tracker, visa-route comparison and a community locator. All free; all guides — not legal or immigration advice.
The universities directory has country, ranking, tuition and programme data — open Compare to put options side by side. Destination spaces carry the same comparison for cost of living and daily life.
The scholarship finder searches live funding opportunities filtered by destination, level and field — the deadline calendar reminds you before they close.
Pick a destination and visa route and the checklist generates the required documents and steps. Your progress is saved to your account — or kept anonymously for guests until you sign up.
The timeline tracker lets you log each milestone of your application (submitted, biometrics, decision) and optionally share it anonymously — the community's shared timelines show real processing times per route.
The calendar collects dates that matter — embassy appointment windows, scholarship deadlines, intakes, community events — filterable by destination.
JapaBot is the platform's AI assistant. It answers using Japa.to's own wiki, guides and community content and links back to sources so you can verify. It is a starting point, not a replacement for professional advice.
It compares live transfer rates across corridors so you can see which provider actually delivers the most money home — check it before every send.
Japa Academy is the learning arm of the platform — structured tracks on applications, documents, budgeting and settling in, with progress tracking and shareable certificates that show on your profile.
Your avatar, bio, journey stage, spaces, posts and earned certificates — you choose the visibility of each part in Settings. A pseudonymous username is fine; your legal name is never required.
The dashboard is your hub: continue-learning cards, your certificates, analytics on your posts, and shortcuts into Academy and Docs.
Browse mentors by destination or profession, send a request, and if accepted a DM thread opens automatically. Matching weighs keyword overlap and similarity. Mentors are community members, not paid consultants — never pay a mentor for a 'guaranteed' outcome.
AMA threads are scheduled Q&A sessions where a settled member answers community questions live. Watch the calendar for upcoming sessions or request a topic.
Helpful activity — answers, guides, reports, mentoring — earns achievements and XP. The achievement feed and leaderboard are opt-in recognition, not a competition requirement.
Credits are the platform's optional currency for premium actions — highlighted listings, certain form submissions, promotional placements. Buy them with Paystack or Stripe in your wallet; prices are always shown before you pay.
If a paid feature fails to deliver, contact us via the contact form and we will make it right. Otherwise purchases are final as described in the Terms of Service.
Post it in the Service Directory — geo-indexed so movers in your area can find you. Keep it honest: fake reviews and disguised advertising are removed under the community rules.
Yes — Jobs lists relocation-friendly roles and sponsorship-track employers. Employers can post openings; always verify any 'guaranteed sponsorship' claim before paying for anything.
Self-serve ad slots let you promote to specific communities — create a campaign from your dashboard. Ads are clearly labelled and never read your personal data.
Check Deals — vetted partner offers and coupons for movers (insurance, transfers, flights, services). Every deal shows its terms before you redeem.
Yes — subscribe on the homepage or in Settings for periodic digests of new destinations, guides and community highlights. Unsubscribe links work in every email.
Share your referral link and earn credit when people you invite join and engage. Referral rewards and rules are in your dashboard — spamming links gets them revoked.
Migration scams are common — fake agents, 'guaranteed visa' schemes, forged documents. We run a dedicated Scam Alert board, moderate reports daily, and permanently remove accounts that facilitate fraud. Never pay anyone who promises a guaranteed outcome, and never share documents with strangers.
Use the report option on any post or profile, or submit details through the contact form under 'Report abuse'. For scams and fake-agent schemes specifically, post to the Scam Alert board so the whole community benefits.
Community moderators and the Japa.to team review reports using a graduated enforcement ladder — note, warning, restriction, suspension, ban — detailed in the community rules. Fraud and scams skip the ladder entirely.
Yes — open a support ticket from your account and a different reviewer takes a second look. Explain what happened calmly; most honest mistakes get reversed.
If you officially represent a university, employer or organisation on the platform, use the ownership-claim flow on its page — verified claims get admin rights over the profile after our review.
Genuine recommendations are welcome; drive-by advertising is not. Commercial posts belong in the Service Directory, and undisclosed self-promotion is removed under the community rules.
You choose a username that does not have to be your legal name, and you control what appears on your public profile. For sensitive topics — visa denials, finances, scams — many members post under a pseudonym. Do not post other people's private details regardless.
Use a strong unique password and enable two-factor authentication in Settings. We will never ask for your password, one-time codes or wallet PIN — anyone who does is not from Japa.to.
Only what is needed to run the platform — account details, the content you choose to post, and standard technical logs. The full breakdown, including retention and your rights, is in the Privacy Policy.
From Settings you can export your data or request account deletion. Deletion follows the process described in the Privacy Policy — your personal data is erased while anonymised community contributions may remain.
No. We do not sell personal data to anyone, and there are no third-party data brokers on this platform. Advertising slots exist but are served without handing advertisers your personal information.
Appearance (light, dark, system) and language are in Settings — or the quick toggles in your account menu. The site remembers them across devices via your account, not trackers.