In May of 2025, filmmaker and adventurer Michael Angelo Zervos stepped off a flight at Detroit Metro Airport and into history. Surrounded by friends and family, he had just completed one of the most ambitious travel feats ever attempted.
Over the course of 499 days, Zervos visited all 195 UN-recognized countries, setting a new Guinness World Record for the fastest trip around the world. The previous record stood at just 554 days.
To reach every destination, Zervos had needed entry approvals for almost every stop. This meant dozens of eVisas, health declarations, and embassy-issued permits, each with its own deadlines and requirements.
Not wanting his journey to be delayed before it even began, Zervos turned to iVisa, a travel technology company founded in 2013 to simplify global travel documentation. Known for its transparency and strong online reputation, iVisa has become a trusted name in digital visa processing, often turning skeptical searches like “is iVisa a scam?” into positive customer experiences
For Zervos, the partnership became the key to completing his dream on time. For iVisa, it became living proof of its mission to make traveling simple, fast, and hassle-free for everyone.
Planning the Impossible, One Visa at a Time
The partnership began in June 2023, when Zervos reached out to iVisa with an idea that few believed was possible. He wanted to visit every country in the world in one continuous journey, documenting what happiness looks like in different cultures.
The journey would take him through airports, bus stations, seaports, and land crossings in nearly every region on earth.
At the time, Zervos estimated he would need at least 80 separate travel documents, from short-term visas and arrival cards to complex embassy approvals. iVisa’s team, which includes more than 300 staff members across multiple countries, agreed to help him with the process.
Over the following months, they prepared and submitted 70 of the travel documents he needed for his record attempt, covering countries across six continents.
The company’s co-founder and President, Sergio Merino, saw the request as a test.
“From the moment we heard his vision, our team was excited,” he said. “This was the ultimate test of what we stand for. If we could support the man with the most challenging travel schedule on Earth, we knew it would show the world what true visa expertise looks like.”
Navigating Six Continents of Red Tape
Zervos’s itinerary required a level of coordination few travelers will ever experience. Each destination had its own documentation rules, processing times, and application formats.
Some required embassy-issued visas, while others used newly implemented digital authorizations that became common after the pandemic. In more ways than one, iVisa brought order to the chaos.
The company’s technology platform maintains the world’s largest continuously updated database of global visa and entry requirements, covering more than 180 destinations. Its multilingual support system operates 24 hours a day in 14 languages, ensuring travelers can access accurate guidance anywhere in the world.
iVisa’s systems monitor global visa regulations in real time, allowing its experts to immediately adjust requirements and ensure travelers stay compliant as policies change. During Zervos’s journey, this capability helped the team track every pending approval and update his documents before he reached the next border.
Every approval in Zervos’s plan was timed carefully. Many countries grant only narrow entry windows, and one delay could have disrupted months of progress.
The Border That Almost Ended the Journey
The most trying moment came near the end of the trip. By April 2025, Zervos had crossed more than 180 borders, but one nation remained uncertain.
North Korea, one of the most restrictive countries in the world, has been closed to foreign travelers since early 2020. For months, its absence hung over the itinerary as an immovable obstacle.
Then, in mid-April, the country reopened briefly, offering just two weeks of limited access. Zervos sent a text to his contact at iVisa that read “North Korea’s open.”
Within hours, the company’s specialists had initiated the application process, verified the new entry conditions, and guided him through the narrow approval window. If that single clearance had been missed, the finish wouldn’t have been possible.
A Mission Beyond the Record
Throughout his travels, Zervos asked the question, “What’s the happiest moment of your life?” to people everywhere he went. From markets in West Africa to train platforms in Europe and mountain villages in Asia, the answers formed a portrait of humanity he called Project Kosmos, a name meant to celebrate the wonder people share across cultures.
He filmed the interviews himself, often with nothing more than a handheld camera. The responses were honest and unfiltered, with Zervos discovering that some of the happiest people were the ones who had the least.
Project Kosmos continues today, with Zervos working with Penguin Random House on a book featuring stories and photos from his journey. His goal is to create a collection of global happiness that transcends borders.
For Sergio Merino, President of iVisa, the message hits home.
“Michael’s journey reflects our mission,” he reflected. “To make the world more accessible, more open, and more human. If we can power the world’s fastest trip across every country, we can certainly power yours.”
Turning a Travel Shutdown into a Tech Breakthrough
Zervos’s journey put iVisa’s technology to the test, but the company’s resilience has already been proven years earlier. When COVID-19 brought global travel to a standstill in 2020, visa processing nearly disappeared overnight.
Rather than shutting down, iVisa redirected its systems toward the new health forms many countries required as borders reopened, helping travelers complete them quickly and accurately.
Their proactive response not only kept the company operating during the shutdown but also reinforced its customer-first philosophy.
“Listening to our customers and adapting to their evolving needs is what sustains us,” the company shared.
iVisa’s remote-first workforce spans more than 20 countries, led by teams selected for their empathy, clear communication, and ability to collaborate with people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Leaders are encouraged to remain flexible and accountable in a constantly evolving industry, fostering trust within their teams and inspiring new ideas that keep both employees and travelers at the heart of the company’s work.
From Reviews to Results: How iVisa Earns Traveler Trust
The success of Project Kosmos added to a long list of milestones for iVisa. The company now supports travelers from more than 200 nationalities, processing over 1.4 million applications with a 99 percent approval rate.
It has received more than 60,000 reviews on TrustPilot, maintaining an average score of 4.4 out of 5, and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies.
Travelers can reach customer support through chat, phone, WhatsApp, or email at any time, and clear refund policies back every service. For eVisas and passport renewals, customers can even receive up to a full refund if their documents have not yet been submitted to the government or embassy.
“Trust grows when we consistently deliver on our promise,” the company said. “That has been our most effective strategy.”
A Future Without Friction
Automation is driving the next phase of iVisa’s mission to make travel easier. Governments around the world are adopting new electronic travel authorizations (ETAs) and the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), which allow travelers to register digitally before arrival.
While these systems aim to simplify travel, many official websites remain hard to navigate due to bugs, payment issues, and language barriers. iVisa plans to incorporate these new authorizations into its website and app upon their launch, further enhancing its platform to make applying for a visa or any travel document as simple and dependable as booking a flight.
iVisa Plus allows frequent travelers to subscribe to a single plan that provides unlimited access to select eVisas, embassy registrations, and travel forms. Paired with its AI-powered support tool, iVy, customers can complete applications more quickly and with fewer steps.
As a tech-first company, iVisa takes bold but calculated risks when it comes to innovation, testing every new feature for its impact on travelers before release.
“Our approach is simple,” the company said. “If a new idea helps us serve travelers better and operate more efficiently, we pursue it.”
A Shared Finish Line
When Zervos touched down in Detroit, his journey had already made headlines around the world. Yet for iVisa, it meant something deeply personal, marking the culmination of months of quiet work behind the scenes.
Seventy visa approvals, six continents, and not a single missed deadline showed what could happen when technology and human expertise worked seamlessly together. As Zervos reunited with his family, the team that had helped guide him from afar celebrated their own victory.
Today, iVisa continues to help travelers everywhere “unlock the world,” one document, one story, and one stamped passport at a time.
