Help Centre

Everything you need to know about using Overstay. If you can't find what you're looking for, reach out to us at the bottom of this page.

Getting Started

When you first open Overstay, an onboarding wizard guides you through setting up your profile. You'll select your nationality (or nationalities, if you hold multiple passports) — this determines which visa rules apply to you by default.

From there, the quickest ways to get started are:

• Add a trip manually — enter the country, entry date, and exit date for any past, current, or future trip
• Import from photos — Overstay can read your photo library's location metadata to suggest trips you've taken, without accessing the photos themselves
• Mark countries as visited — use the visited countries checklist for a quick record of where you've been

Your Dashboard will update with allowance gauges showing how many days you've used and how many remain for each relevant visa rule.

Managing Trips

All your trips live in the Trips tab, divided into three segments:

• Upcoming — future trips you've added for planning purposes
• Current — trips in progress, with a card showing days elapsed and quick actions to edit or end the trip
• Past — your complete travel history, with filtering by country, rule, date range, and free-text search

Trips can be either confirmed (actually happened or in progress) or planned (hypothetical, for what-if analysis). Planned trips are visually distinct and can be converted to confirmed with a single tap.

Allowance Rules

Overstay calculates your remaining days based on allowance rules. Three types of rule are supported:

• Rolling window — e.g. the Schengen 90/180-day rule, which counts days within a sliding 180-day window
• Fixed period — e.g. the UK 183-day rule, which resets each calendar year
• Cumulative cap — e.g. US B-1/B-2 visa limits, which count total days since a start date

Rules are managed in Profile > Allowance Rules. Any rule can be enabled or disabled — disabled rules are excluded from the Dashboard, calendar, planner, notifications, and exports. You can also pin rules so they appear in the Dashboard gauge carousel.

Premium subscribers can create custom rules targeting specific countries, choosing from fixed period or cumulative cap types.

Dashboard & Time Travel

The Dashboard shows a gauge for each of your enabled and pinned allowance rules. Each gauge displays days used, days remaining, and a colour-coded status:

• Green — safe, plenty of days remaining
• Amber — approaching the limit
• Red — at or over the limit

Premium subscribers can use the time travel feature on any gauge — pick a date to see what your allowance looked like (or will look like) on that day, including which trips contributed to the count.

Calendar & Planner

The Calendar tab shows a 24-month grid with your trips filled in. Tap any day to see a detail overlay showing which country you were in, which rules apply, and whether you were within your allowance. Days where an overstay occurred are highlighted.

The trip planner (premium) lets you model a hypothetical future trip and immediately see how it would affect your remaining allowance. It answers the question: "can I stay until this date without overstaying?" — before you book, not after.

Travel Map & Stats

The Globe tab provides an interactive 3D globe showing the countries you've visited, highlighted in your chosen accent colour. Toggle between World and Stats views:

• World — spin, zoom, and tap countries on the globe to see detail
• Stats — a ranked list of countries by days spent, with summary counts

You can also manage your visited countries checklist from Profile > Visited Countries, and customise the map's accent colour and style in Profile > Map Appearance.

Photo Import

The photo import feature reconstructs your travel history from the location data embedded in your photos. To use it, go to the Trips tab, switch to the Past segment, and tap the menu icon in the toolbar.

• Only the geographic coordinates and date from each photo are read — no image content is accessed
• Country identification uses a local lookup on your device — no data is sent over the network
• Suggested trips are presented for your review before anything is saved
• No photo metadata is retained after the import session ends

iCloud Backup

Premium subscribers can enable encrypted iCloud backup in Profile. When enabled:

• Your data is encrypted on your device using AES-256-GCM before being uploaded
• The encryption key is stored in your iCloud Keychain, which is end-to-end encrypted by Apple
• Backups happen automatically after you make changes, with a manual option available
• We have no access to your encryption key or backup data

Important: if you lose access to your Apple ID and all of your devices, the encryption key in your iCloud Keychain will be lost and your backup will be unrecoverable. This is a deliberate consequence of end-to-end encryption — there is no backdoor.

GPS Border Detection

Premium subscribers can enable automatic border crossing detection in Profile. When enabled, the app uses Apple's significant location monitoring to detect when you may have entered a new country, then sends a notification prompting you to log the trip.

• No location history is stored by the app
• No trip is recorded unless you explicitly confirm it
• Requires "Always" location permission, which you can revoke at any time in iOS Settings
• Free-tier users are never prompted for location access

Premium Features

Overstay's free tier includes trip tracking, allowance calculation, the calendar, travel stats summary, and the visited countries checklist. A premium subscription adds:

• Trip planner (what-if analysis)
• Custom allowance rules
• Allowance time travel
• GPS border detection
• PDF and CSV trip history export
• Detailed travel stats and country drill-through
• Encrypted iCloud backup
• Date range filtering on the globe

Subscriptions are managed through Apple. To view, change, or cancel your subscription, go to Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions on your device.

Troubleshooting

A rule isn't showing on my Dashboard

Dashboard gauges only show rules that are both enabled and pinned. Go to Profile > Allowance Rules, check that the rule is toggled on, and tap the pin icon to add it to your Dashboard.

My data didn't appear after restoring from backup

After restoring, restart the app to ensure all data is loaded. If the restore completed without errors but data is missing, check that you're signed into the same Apple ID used for the backup.

Location permissions aren't working

GPS border detection requires "Always" location permission. Go to iOS Settings > Overstay > Location and select "Always". If the option isn't available, try toggling the permission off and on again.

How do I restore my premium subscription?

Your subscription is tied to your Apple ID. If you reinstall the app or switch devices, your premium status should restore automatically. If it doesn't, open the app's paywall screen — your purchase will be verified with Apple.

Your Data & Privacy

Overstay is local-first. All your trip records, profile data, and settings are stored on your device. There are no user accounts, no servers, no analytics, and no third-party tracking. We have no way to see your information.

The optional iCloud backup feature encrypts your data on your device before uploading — we cannot access the encrypted backup or the key.

For full details, read our Privacy Policy.

Contact Us

If you need help or have feedback, email us at contact@overstay.app.

To help us assist you quickly, please include your device model, iOS version, and a description of the issue.

Disclaimer

Overstay is a personal travel tracking tool. It does not provide legal, immigration, or tax advice. Visa rules and stay limits change frequently — always verify current requirements with official government sources or a qualified professional before making travel decisions.