| name | migration-research |
| description | Research and verify country-specific migration, visa, residency, document, legalization, and pre-departure requirements from official sources. Use when a migration case needs current rules, a document checklist, official links, source conflict resolution, or a recheck of previously collected requirements. |
Migration Research
Use this skill only inside an existing case folder or create one with $migration-case-manager first. Read ../migration-case-manager/references/case-format.md before writing.
Research protocol
- Read
00-case.md, 10-people.md, and 20-route-options.md. State any missing fact that changes eligibility; do not infer it from nationality, name, or travel history.
- Find requirements in this order: destination immigration authority, destination consulate for the actual country of application, officially appointed application operator, then issuing authority for every required document.
- Use unofficial sources only to discover a question or operational friction. Never use them as the sole evidence for a requirement.
- Verify that the page applies to this route, applicant, and point in time. Record its publication/update date when present.
- Add each claim to
30-requirements.md and its source to the source register there. Use one requirement per evidence obligation, not one requirement per webpage.
Source record
For every SRC-*, write: official URL, publisher, retrieved date, any page update date, short paraphrased rule, applicable route/person, and Fresh until. Follow source-reconciliation.md when sources disagree. Mark a conflict rather than selecting a convenient answer. Request legal review if authoritative sources cannot reconcile it.
Quality gate
Before returning research:
- Map every document claim to a requirement and source.
- Distinguish mandatory, conditional, recommended, and unknown items.
- Identify expiring documents and upstream prerequisites.
- Add actions only as proposals;
$migration-actions owns execution state.
- Tell the user what was verified today and what must be rechecked later.
Refresh existing research
Before relying on an existing route pack, run migration-os sources refresh <case-directory>. It stores only public-page hashes in the ignored .migration-os/source-state.json file and reports new, changed, unavailable, and stale source records. A changed or unavailable source invalidates any legal conclusion drawn from the prior page: inspect it, update the SRC-* record and affected REQ-* records, then render the dashboard again.
