Dubai, UAE – February 2025 – For global enterprises managing international workforce mobility, visa processing has become an increasingly complex bottleneck. Processing times have stretched to 4-12 weeks in many markets, embassy backlogs continue to grow, and HR teams report spending hundreds of hours annually on application coordination. Now, a Dubai-based startup believes AI can fundamentally change this dynamic.
VISARUN.AI, which recently raised $700,000 in pre-seed funding from Swiss and UAE investors, has built a platform designed to bring automation and predictability to corporate visa management. The company is already processing 10,000 applications monthly for enterprise clients and travel agencies.
The Growing Pain Point
The scale of the challenge facing HR departments is significant. Companies with international operations often manage hundreds of visa applications simultaneously, each involving multiple documents, specific requirements, and unpredictable timelines.
“When we interviewed HR directors, the word they kept using was ‘chaos,'” said Alena Iakina, CCO and Co-Founder of VISARUN.AI. “Teams had no centralized system, no way to predict outcomes, and no visibility into where applications stood. Everything was reactive. When problems emerged, they were already costly.”
The administrative burden is measurable. The company estimates that HR managers at large enterprises spend over 600 hours annually on visa coordination—time spent tracking documents, following up with employees, and managing unexpected rejections or delays.
A Different Approach to Visa Management
Visarun built its platform around a central premise: companies need transparency and predictability, not just faster processing. The system handles end-to-end visa workflows—from initial document upload through final passport return—while providing real-time insights at every stage.
What differentiates the platform is its predictive capability. The Visa Approval Calculator analyzes an applicant’s profile against destination requirements and historical approval patterns to generate a probability score before submission. This allows companies to assess risk before committing to business travel or client meetings.
“The question we heard most often was: ‘Will this application be approved?'” said Vladimir Indjikian, President and Co-Founder. “Companies were making significant travel and business commitments without knowing if their employees would actually get their visas. We wanted to change that dynamic.”
How It Works in Practice
The Smart Visa Route system recommends optimal application pathways based on multiple factors including citizenship, destination, travel dates, and approval probability. Machine learning algorithms automatically verify documents against consulate requirements, flagging potential issues before submission rather than after rejection.
A 24/7 AI assistant handles routine questions about requirements and procedures, reducing the support burden on HR teams. The system also offers interview preparation tools, helping applicants understand what to expect and how to respond to common consulate questions.
Market Response and Expansion
Early enterprise clients report 70% reductions in manual administrative work related to visa processing. Visarun.ai provides unified dashboards showing real-time application status across all departments—HR, legal, operations, and finance—with automatic notifications when action is required or status changes occur.
The company is expanding in markets experiencing significant visa processing challenges. The MENA region in particular faces substantial backlogs due to high application volumes and consulate staffing constraints. The Arab States region has the world’s highest concentration of migrant workers at 41.4% of the workforce, creating sustained demand for visa services.
VISARUN.AI is targeting the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, and China, focusing on enterprises with 1,000+ employees and travel agencies managing 100+ monthly visa cases.
Integration and Adoption
The platform integrates with existing corporate systems including HRIS, project management tools, and CRM platforms. This allows organizations to incorporate visa management into their current workflows rather than requiring teams to adopt entirely new processes.
“Technology adoption in HR is always a challenge,” Iakina noted. “We focused on making the system feel familiar while adding capabilities that weren’t possible before. The goal is to augment how teams already work, not force them to change everything.”
Looking Forward
The $700,000 funding will support continued product development and market expansion. On the roadmap are deeper integrations with travel booking platforms, expanded country coverage, and enhanced AI capabilities for handling more of the visa lifecycle autonomously.
The company sees the visa management market as ripe for transformation. While many processes have been digitized, few have been truly automated or made predictable. VISARUN.AI aims to change that, one application at a time.
“This is fundamentally about giving companies control over an important but often chaotic part of their operations,” Indjikian said. “When you can predict outcomes and automate routine work, you free up your team to focus on what actually matters: growing the business.”
About VISARUN.AI
VISARUN.AI provides AI-powered visa automation for enterprises and travel agencies. Based in Dubai, the company’s platform handles end-to-end visa processing with features including predictive approval scoring, automated document verification, smart routing, and 24/7 AI assistance.
