This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Don't you hate it whenever you get engaged, but your fiance is from another country, then you have to figure out how to get them to your country. And whether you've had that problem yourself or not, you might be familiar with the hit reality show, "90 Day Fiance." And as I'm saying this, I'm realizing it sounds kind of like an ad, but it's not an ad. This is the introduction to our episode. Unlike many reality shows, this one, well, side hustle school, but I'm speaking here of "90 Day Fiance," is actually based on, wait for it, reality. Figuring out visa issues and immigration between couples is a major issue for people in lots of countries, especially the US.
There's just a lot of bureaucracy to navigate in many ways to get it wrong, which of course sets you back in the process. So if you found yourself in this situation, wouldn't you want to know about the pitfalls in advance and hopefully fill out the paperwork correctly the first time? Whether you're interested in that topic or not, you might be interested in what the civil engineer in today's story shows people how to do. He's been able to build a good business for himself after successfully navigating the difficult spousal visa process to bring his fiance to the US. This engineer offers video courses to help multinational couples come together in the same country.
In line with the reality show, we're calling the story, "Civil Engineer Dismantles 90 Day Fiance Visa Problem." And that story is coming up in just 30 seconds. But first, here is the actual ad from our sponsor. [Music]
A dozen years ago, Prem Kumar went through the long and frustrating process of filing for a fiance visa so he could bring his future spouse to the United States. The couple initially hired a lawyer to do it for them, but that turned out to be a disaster. The lawyer was unprofessional, made a number of mistakes on the required forms, and ended up causing months of delays.
As you can imagine, Prem and his fiance were pretty disheartened. They wanted to get married and start a life together as quickly as possible. And instead of wedding bells, it was endless red tape. As a civil engineer by day, Prem is methodical and detail oriented. So he took matters into his own hands and learned as much about the US fiance visa process as he could.
Now at the time, again, a dozen years ago, there wasn't a lot of information freely available online, but he read forum posts and watched as many videos as he could find. Over the next six months, he became an expert on this subject and eventually secured the visa they needed. 10 years later, big fast forward here, 10 years later when he needed extra money for a down payment on a home, Prem went looking for a side hustle. Reflecting on his skills and interests, he realized that the fiance visa process was a core expertise. After all, he'd been through that process himself and he knew it was a big market with lots of people seeking help.
He was also tech savvy. So building a website wasn't hard on its own. The harder part was adding this side hustle to his busy life with a full-time job, a wife and two young kids. Those two young kids arrived during the 10 year gap as well. To make things official, Prem made visa tutor into an actual business with an LLC.
He got his bonding paperwork through New York state and also got himself listed with the Better Business Bureau. It was more red tape, but once again, it was worth it. Since he's not a lawyer, which he's clear about, he can't provide legal advice or represent anyone at court or at immigration hearings. But there are many visa applicants just like him who don't want to hire a lawyer, but still need guidance in understanding how to fill out the forms, preferably the right way the first time. Enter visa tutor.
Visa tutor offers lots of free valuable content. Prem took some of the most difficult and obscure parts of the visa process and provided in-depth explanations. This helped him to build a reputation as being a helpful and approachable person. He developed flow charts, checklists, video tutorials and more. After he had a sizable daily traffic count, he started to capture leads by email using aWeber.
He wrote an email sequence with two weeks of immensely helpful messages. These messages included diagrams, templates, common questions and answers. Then he would introduce his ebook or video courses for sale. After pitching the materials, he would resume normal emails that offered real value along with some soft promotions. The first sale came from an ebook priced at $5.
When that PayPal notification came in, Prem screamed at the top of his lungs, "Whoa, this works, this works." That night he was so excited to have made that first sale that he had a hard time sleeping. All of his content marketing and free videos are on the Visa Tutor website. His paid products, those courses, are managed by Thinkific, a platform that hosts the content. Thinkific handles the entire process from signup, payment, discussion boards, et cetera, and it also offers a variety of payment handlers. For example, he offers a course on filing the form I-129F, which is the petition for alien fiance, and that course is for sale for three monthly payments of $49.
Another course covers the K-1 Visa interview process for six monthly payments of $59. And notice how that works, by the way. He's breaking up a one-time cost into three or six monthly payments, which makes it seem more accessible. Visa Tutor now brings in an average of $2,000 to $5,000 a month, depending on the time of year. Business dropped a bit during the pandemic due to the lack of international travel, but he's never seen a month dip below $1,800.
Prem expects to be very busy over the next few months because a new administration in the White House means there will be new Visa rules that impact his readers. Immigration is a highly evolving field, so it's important to stay on top of developments. And by doing that, he hopes to continue building credibility and authority. Last year, Prem hired his first part-time writer and content moderator. In the future, he wants to expand to different Visa types and immigration procedures.
He's even thinking of pursuing a joint venture with an immigration attorney. But on that, the verdict is still out. [Music]
Well, if you're looking for an example of something that uses the knowledge economy, you know, something where you become an expert over time and then you offer that expertise both in free and premium versions, so all the free content, the videos and such, as well as the courses, which are for sale, I mean, look no further because this is something that is a clear need for a lot of people. It's a very specific, identifiable market. You could say that the market is desperate in a way that they really need to get this information.
They need to make sure they fill out these forms properly or else it's going to mean months of delay, or perhaps even failure to be united as a couple. So the stakes are pretty high. I also really like how he does those monthly payments because it just, as I said, seems more accessible. $49 a month for three months. Of course, that's what, $150, technically $147.
But psychologically, there is something different about pricing that way. So I'm sure he's tested that a bit. At least that's my impression. But in any case, it's a smart strategy. Now here's a fun fact.
The production company for TLC's 90 Day Fiance, the actual show, they contacted Prim multiple times asking if his readers wanted to audition. And he's pretty protective of his email list, so at first he didn't want to do it. But then he knew some of his readers watched the show, so he decided to put it out there. And apparently some of those readers are in the second round of auditions. So we'll keep our fingers crossed there.
But for Prim, I think we're pretty confident in saying, what a great success. What a wonderful service, and he's found a way to make it work for him as well. So I love that. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed it as well. Remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.
To find the notes for today's episode, including links to Visa Tutor and all the resources I mentioned, there were several of them, just go to sidehustleschool.com/1571. One, five, seven, one. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
