Turn information into a next step you can use.
Kestrel connects the sources you checked, the choices you saved, and the plan you can act on next. This page is the whole of it: how one workspace takes you from a question to a dated route, and what stays with you once you go.
Start with a free account01 · Start where you are
Six ways in. No fixed order.
Kestrel is one workspace with six doors. Pick the situation closest to yours and start there. The rest of the platform connects when it becomes useful, not before.
Every situation uses the same workspace. The door you enter through only decides what you see first.
02 · Set your context once
Tell Kestrel your situation once. Every number on every screen is derived from it.
Where you are, what you have saved, what comes in each month, what it costs to live, and what you refuse to touch. You set these in one place. Runway, translated hours, and budget headroom all read from the same record, so changing one fact updates everything that depends on it. Watch the right column follow the left.
Your context · set in Settings
Current
Derived · shown across the workspace
Recomputed on change
Illustrative figures. The same context also drives program fit, stay budgets, and visa applicability, which need more than arithmetic and are shown on their own screens with their sources.
03 · Every fact keeps its source
Each claim shows where it came from and when a person last checked.
Kestrel brings the source to you rather than standing in for it. Every policy, price, and rule links to where it was published, carries the date it was last reviewed, and goes back into review when the source changes. Aggregated material stays marked pending until a person verifies it. Member reports never count as verification.
The life of one fact
Residency policy · Alder State (Online)
Fully online institution; states there is no need to come to the US to attend the university.
Three kinds of source, told apart on every screen: official (the institution’s own page), aggregated (pending until a person reviews it), and member (a report, never a verification).
04 · Compare before you commit
Side by side, by the things that decide it.
Programs, destinations, and roles all compare the same way: the facts that decide the choice in one table, sorted by what you care about most. Change the priority and the order changes with it. The figures come from the dossiers and records in chapter three, dated.
Illustrative figures. Fit is scored against the context in chapter two, never against other members. Every cell on the real screen carries its check date.
05 · Turn it into a route
Saved things become steps. Steps have phases and dates.
A route is the plan itself: phases in a practical order, each holding the steps that belong to it. Anything you save in Study, Work, or Move can be added as a step with its date and cost attached. Kits from Resources drop a whole checklist into the right phase at once. The route is what the dashboard reads.
Research
Decide
Prepare
Commit
Land
Settle
Phases are Kestrel’s default order; you can rename, add, or remove them. Every step keeps a link back to the record it came from.
06 · Know your runway
The one number that decides the timing.
Runway is how many months you can sustain the plan before something has to change. Kestrel computes it from your context and re-computes it whenever a cost, a date, or an income moves. Try it. This is the same arithmetic the workspace uses.
Runway
8.8months
Savings − reserve$8,400 spendable
Living − income$950 net burn each month
Spendable ÷ net burn8.8 months
Under a year. Kestrel would flag the Commit phase and show which step moves the number most.
Flights and stays under 28 nights are one-time costs: they lower what you have to spend, not what you spend per month. A stay of 28 nights or more counts as monthly living instead. Illustrative; not financial advice.
07 · What travels with you
Once you go, three things come along.
The route gets you there. These keep the rest of your life reachable after you arrive. Each has its own page; this is where they fit.
Kestrel Line
A U.S. number that rings in your browser. Verification codes, recruiter calls, and registrar voicemail reach you on your hours.
See Kestrel LineBusiness
Your entity, bank, and address stay anchored in the U.S. while you and your client hours move. Leaving never looks like closing.
See BusinessCommunity
People at every stage of the same kind of life. Accountability pairs on your timeline, and meetups where members cluster.
See Community08 · Start free
Start free. Upgrade when Kestrel earns its place in your plan.
A free account builds your starting point and opens selected resources. The full workspace, the community spaces, and Kestrel Line are added when they are useful, and paid features stay available through the end of any billing period you cancel in.
Free
A starting point and selected resources.
Founder
Core at the Founder price, for the first 300 paid members.
Core
The full workspace.
Pro
Everything in Core, with more room to plan.