Editorial Policy
Last updated: 27 September 2026.
Sourcing
We work in a clear order of preference:
- Primary official sources — IRS publications and form instructions, VA and HUD guidance, FHFA announcements, CFPB material, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac selling guides, the USCIS Policy Manual, the State Department Visa Bulletin, gov.uk and Home Office guidance.
- Reputable professional analysis — established law and accountancy firms, where no official source covers the point.
- Everything else — used only where nothing better exists, and labelled as such.
Every article lists its sources with links.
Verification
Before a figure is published we try to trace it to the body that produced it. A number appearing only in aggregator sites or content farms is not published as fact.
Where two credible sources disagree, we publish both with their dates and labels rather than picking one.
Where we cannot verify something, we say so in the article. We do not fill gaps with plausible-sounding estimates. Live examples on this site include: the absence of a USDA minimum credit score despite the widely quoted 640; unverified Freddie Mac minimum scores; an FHA threshold that may have been re-indexed; and the fact that no AILA or bar-association attorney fee survey exists for 2026.
Dating
Every article shows the date its facts were checked. Articles covering fast-moving figures carry a note at the top saying so.
We do not quietly update a figure inside an old article and leave the original date.
What we will not publish
Advice for a specific situation. We describe published rules. We do not tell readers what to do about their own case.
Anything presenting us as a professional adviser. We are a publisher.
Guaranteed outcomes. No article will suggest that an immigration petition, a loan application or a tax position will succeed.
Figures we could not source. Stated plainly above, and it is the standard we most want to be held to.
Our approach to YMYL subjects
Tax, mortgages and immigration are what Google classifies as "Your Money or Your Life" content, and the classification is right — errors here cause real harm.
So:
- We explain rules; we do not advise
- We name the professional to consult, and try to be specific about when
- We state a rule's effective date, because the date is often the whole answer
- We flag genuinely unsettled questions as unsettled
- We do not soften a bad outcome to make an article more appealing. Where the honest answer is "this route is closed" or "the wait is twelve years", we say it
Advertising and independence
Advertising is served by third-party networks. We do not select individual advertisements.
No advertiser has any influence over what we publish. We do not take payment for coverage and we do not publish sponsored content presented as editorial. Anything commercially arranged would be clearly labelled.
Given the subject matter, we would particularly ask readers to tell us about advertising that promises guaranteed immigration outcomes, loan approval regardless of credit, or implausible tax results. We will report it to the network.
Use of AI tools
We use AI tools in research and drafting. Every published article is checked against its sources by a person before publication, and the editorial desk is responsible for what appears. Tools do not remove accountability.
Corrections
Email [email protected] with the article, what is wrong, what it should say, and a source if you have one.
We correct factual errors, update the checked date, and add a note saying what changed. We distinguish between a correction — we were wrong — and an update — the rules changed. Typographical fixes are made without a note.
We will not remove an accurate article because someone dislikes it.