Travel-and-expense platform Perk (formerly TravelPerk) has unveiled “Entry Ready”, an embedded workflow that surfaces visa requirements and lets travellers pay for more than 60 eVisas and Electronic Travel Authorisations at checkout. The feature, launched simultaneously from Boston and London on 23 July 2026, positions Perk as the first corporate booking tool to handle visas end-to-end. Entry Ready draws passport data stored in users’ profiles and consults partner database Sherpa’s AI engine—which claims relationships with 350 governments—to determine entry rules “92 % faster than any other provider”. If a permit is needed, the application is pre-populated; payment posts to the same trip invoice, eliminating the out-of-pocket expense claims that 32 % of the 8,000 business travellers surveyed by Perk said they fail to reclaim. For UK-based employers, the integration arrives just as Britain’s ETA becomes mandatory for all non-visa nationals in November and as digital status checks tighten worldwide. Automating compliance reduces the risk of employees turning up at Heathrow without the right authorisation—a scenario that already costs companies an average £1,750 per incident, according to Perk’s research. Finance teams also gain a single cost line that can be coded to project budgets. The move reflects a broader trend: visa compliance is shifting from the immigration desk to the booking engine. SAP Concur added a rules-alert plug-in last year, but payment remained offline; Amex GBT is piloting something similar for SMEs. By folding payment into the booking flow, Perk raises the bar for duty-of-care and could pressure rivals to strike their own eVisa partnerships. Mobility managers should audit whether Perk’s 60-permit library covers their key corridors—complex markets such as India and China still require traditional submissions. Where coverage exists, updating travel policies to mandate Entry Ready could save lengthy reimbursement cycles and reduce shadow-work for both employees and HR.
Source: Perk Media Centre
