Editorial Standards

Our promise

People make real decisions — about visas, money, family and health — based on what they read here. That is a responsibility we take literally. Every guide in The NRI Playbook and every entry in the Resource & Support Center is written to one standard: verifiable, sourced, current, and free of guesswork.

How we research

• Official sources first.Guides are researched from government and institutional sources — USCIS, the State Department, CBP, the IRS, India's official portals, and their equivalents. Community folklore, forum posts and hearsay are never treated as facts.
• No assumptions. If we cannot verify a claim against an authoritative source, it does not go in the article.
• Costs and thresholds, with the source beside them.Fees, processing times and annually-changing thresholds go stale. We print one only where you cannot act without it — the dispute threshold on a medical bill, the cap on what a payment app can cost you. When we do, the official source sits next to the figure, and we say plainly that the number can change and should be checked there before you rely on it. Where the figure is not essential to acting, we describe how the rule works and link the official page instead of quoting a number. Durable facts fixed in law, such as statutory caps and day-count tests, are stated directly.

How we source

Every guide ends with an "Official sources" list — the actual pages the article was verified against, so you can check us. News headlines on the platform are aggregated only from an allowlist of reputable publishers and always link to the original outlet. Where content is sponsored or contains affiliate links, it is clearly labeled — see the disclosure in our Privacy Policy. Advertising and affiliate relationships never change what our guides recommend.

How we update

Immigration and tax rules change — sometimes overnight. Each guide carries the date it was last updated, and guides are re-verified and revised when the rules they describe change (for example, visa interview policies or filing programs being discontinued). When a major rule change is coming, we update affected guides ahead of its effective date and say plainly what is changing and when.

How we use AI

We use AI tools in how these guides are produced — for drafting, structuring and first-pass research. What AI does not do here is decide what is true. Every factual claim is checked by a person against the primary official source — the government page, the regulation, the form instructions — before it publishes. A claim that cannot be traced to such a source is removed, not softened. Where official sources genuinely conflict, we say so rather than quietly pick one. And we never publish a link we have not opened and read.

AI-assisted, source-verified, human-approved — and signed by the people responsible. The standard is the same whether a sentence was first drafted by a person or a machine.

Who reviews

Every guide and resource section is written and verified by the SOSGI Editorial Team, led by founders Michael and Maneesha Khanna, and carries the line "Written and verified by the SOSGI Editorial Team." Review means the claims were checked against the listed official sources before publishing — not skimmed, checked. Questions readers send through Ask SOSGI feed our pipeline, so the guides answer what the community actually asks.

What we are not

We are a research and information platform — not a law firm, tax practice, medical provider or financial advisor. No article here is professional advice, and every guide says so. Rules have exceptions, and your situation is specific: verify against the linked official sources and consult a licensed professional before acting.

Corrections

If we got something wrong, we want to know today. Report an error through the Contact & Support form — corrections are reviewed by the Editorial Team, fixed in the article, and reflected in its updated date.