You can set up an immigration CRM in one afternoon if you do the steps in the right order: your firm's details first, then your team, your visa types and checklists, your existing clients, and finally one real case. The goal of day one is not a perfect system. It is a system your team can start using tomorrow morning without asking anyone how.
This guide shows how to set up an immigration CRM step by step, following the order VisaPilot's own Getting Started checklist uses. The sequence works for any immigration or visa CRM. Set aside about three hours and have your client spreadsheet and your list of team members ready. If you are still choosing a system, start with our buyer's guide.
Before you start: gather five things
- Your firm name, phone number, address and logo.
- The names and email addresses of your team, and what each person does.
- The visa types you handle most, for example tourist, student, work and family.
- One checklist of required documents for each of those visa types.
- Your client list in a spreadsheet, even if it is messy.
Step 1: Create your account and complete your firm profile (15 minutes)
Sign up with your name, email and a password, or with your Google account. When you start your free trial, VisaPilot asks for your firm's name and phone number. After that, add your address or logo in the firm settings. These details appear on invoices and client emails, so it is worth doing properly. In VisaPilot the first item of the Getting Started checklist covers this.
Step 2: Add your team and choose their roles (20 minutes)
Invite each person and give them the smallest amount of access they need to do their job. An accountant needs invoices and payments. A sales team member needs leads and clients. An administrator sees everything. Roles and permissions let you narrow what each person can open. Remember that clients never use a team seat, so you only count your own staff.
Step 3: Set up your visa types and document checklists (45 minutes)
This is the step that saves the most time later. For each visa type, create a checklist template of the documents you always need. New cases then start with the right list. Do not try to cover every visa type today: start with the three you handle most. Use our document checklist template as a starting point, and add your own fields for anything specific to your firm.
Step 4: Decide your stages (15 minutes)
Write down the stages a case moves through in your firm, from first enquiry to decision, and use names your team already says out loud. Fewer stages are better. If two stages need the same action from the same person, they are one stage. Our guide to visa application tracking shows a simple example.
Step 5: Import your existing clients (30 minutes)
Clean the spreadsheet before you import it: one row per person, one column for each detail, and no merged cells. Remove obvious duplicates. Then import it from a CSV or Excel file. Check the first ten rows after the import, not the last ten. If you need help moving over, our Excel to CRM migration guide lists the common pitfalls.
Step 6: Connect how clients reach you (20 minutes)
- Website form. Put your online application form on your website as a link, a script or an iframe, so enquiries arrive in the CRM directly.
- Email. On the Growth and Agency plans you can send client emails from your own Gmail.
- WhatsApp. On the Growth and Agency plans, message templates open in your own WhatsApp with one click and are logged on the client's timeline.
Step 7: Set up money (15 minutes)
Choose your currency, add your tax or VAT settings and create one test invoice. If you take part payments, record one so your team sees how it works. See a simple invoicing workflow for visa agencies.
Step 8: Protect the account (10 minutes)
Extra sign-in protection in VisaPilot is optional and stays off until you turn it on. We recommend turning on Google Authenticator or the email sign-in code for administrators. On the Growth and Agency plans you can also limit logins to your office network. See the security checklist.
Step 9: Run one real case end to end (30 minutes)
Pick a client who is already in progress. Open the case, attach the documents you have, send one document request, book an appointment and create an invoice. If anything feels slow, fix it now while it is fresh. This single case tells you more than any demo.
Step 10: Train the team in 30 minutes
Show only what each role does every day. Everyone should know three things: where their work is, how to find a client, and how to record what happened. Agree one rule: if it is not in the CRM, it did not happen. Re-visit the Logs after a week to see who is using what.
Your first week
| Day | Goal |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Set-up complete, one real case entered |
| Day 2 | All new enquiries go into the CRM, nothing in chat only |
| Day 3 | Document requests sent through secure links |
| Day 5 | Review: what slowed people down? Adjust stages and checklists |
Frequently asked questions
How long does CRM setup take?
A small agency can finish the basics in an afternoon. Importing a large client list and building every checklist may take a few days. Start with your three main visa types and add more later.
Do I need a developer?
No. VisaPilot runs in your browser and there is nothing to install. A developer is only needed if you want to connect other software through the API on the Agency plan.
Can someone help me move over?
Yes, ask our team. The Agency plan includes custom onboarding and training.
Ready to start? Create your account, compare the plans, or open the live demo first.
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