After India reopened Bangladesh visas, a dozen form-filling plugins piled in: the free one has only got 477 users

In June 2026, India resumed tourist visas for Bangladeshis, and a 43KB free Chrome extension launched 10 days later, built specifically to help people fill in the Indian visa form. 4 months on, it has 477 users and hasn't made a cent. In the same lane, a paid plugin whose creator posts tutorials in Facebook groups every day has 10k users. This piece explains where the demand came from, who holds the money, why the free one didn't take off, and where this playbook can be moved next.

A form that takes 40 minutes to fill

On 2026 Jun 25, India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi, announced that tourist visas for Bangladeshi citizens would resume from Jun 28, ending a pause of nearly two years (reported that day by Bloomberg and Prothom Alo). Lines formed outside visa centres right after the news. A Bangladeshi business outlet's Facebook post said about 140k applications came in after the reopening. India then announced an expansion of its visa services in Bangladesh (Economic Times).

Each applicant first has to fill a multi-page online form at indianvisa-bangladesh.nic.in: dozens of dropdowns, dates accepted only as DD/MM/YYYY, a captcha, and then booking a slot at IVAC (the Indian Visa Application Centre). Visa agents in Bangladesh say filling one by hand takes 30 to 50 minutes, and with the plugin 1 to 1 and a half minutes (a plugin author's post in the "Indian Visa Help centre (IVAC)" Facebook group in November 2025).

In July 8, a developer named "dropship" listed Indian Visa Auto-Fill (Bangladesh). The name is the exact phrase users search for.

What it does

Simple: open the sidebar, enter your registration, applicant, passport, family and visa details once; on the visa site, click "⚡ Auto-Fill" on each page and the page fills itself. Dropdowns are matched automatically, dates are entered in the site's format, declaration boxes are ticked, and one click takes you to the IVAC booking page. You still type the captcha yourself.

Its biggest selling point is the first line of the store page: "Your data stays on your device. Nothing is uploaded." No server, no account, no ads, and no charge of any kind. English-only interface, version 3.0.1, and no updates since launch.

The developer appears to be a local independent developer in Bangladesh: another extension under the same developer account, a Bengali-language bookkeeping tool, launched in November 4 and has 2 users. The privacy page is hosted on Google Sites.

Numbers: adding 6 users a day

The two reviews visible in the store are both 5 stars, one from July 29 and one from August 2, both neatly written in English: "Kudos to the developer for building such a useful tool!" and "Highly recommended for anyone applying for an Indian visa from Bangladesh. Great work by the developer!" They read more like friends helping out than organic reviews. With only 5 ratings averaging 3.4, the 3 that aren't shown are likely low scores.

Searching in English and Bengali, on the web and on TikTok, turns up no one promoting it. Its users most likely come from store search and "related" recommendations on similar plugin pages, though the share is unverified.

Who holds the money

This niche actually started before Bangladesh reopened its visa. Indian Visa Autofill Pro launched in 2025 November, by Soriful Islam (NexSoft Studio). By early November it had 10k users, 86 ratings, a 5.0 average, and in-app purchases. It reads the passport or BGD PDF directly, uploads photos automatically, and supports multiple profiles for different clients. The author promotes it himself in Bangla: Facebook groups, his personal profile, and YouTube tutorials and update posts. The website is blunt about who it's for: visa consultants at travel agencies, tour operators and freelancers. No pricing is published.

After the reopening, at least ten copycats piled in (user counts are Chrome Web Store figures as of early November):

There's also a free open-source version on GitHub that appeared in September, with 0 stars.

The pattern is clear: paid tools aimed at agents rank highest, and free ones rank lower. The fastest-growing free one is a flight site's lead-gen tool, and its real money sits on the main site.

Why the free one didn't take off

People who use these tools fall into two groups. One is individual applicants who fill out a form once or twice in their lives and only want something free. The other is visa agents and travel agencies who fill out dozens of forms a day, will pay, and recommend tools to each other in peer groups.

The free tool only serves the first group, and those users leave after one use and don't advocate for it. What agents need is one-click import from a passport PDF, photo upload, switching between dozens of client profiles, tutorials in the local language, and a developer they can reach when something breaks. The free tool has none of that. "Privacy first, completely free" is a good selling point, but in this niche it's not a reason to pay, and the free slot is already taken by the flight site and the open-source repo.

Its 477 users are basically what you get from a plugin with the right name and perfect timing, picking up installs organically in the store.

Where else this playbook could work

The real lesson isn't this plugin. It's the template Autofill Pro validated:

A government form that's hard to fill out + applicants from one country + selling to agents, charged per use or per month + the author personally teaching people in the local-language Facebook groups and on YouTube.

What triggers it is a policy event: a visa reopening, a new e-visa, an entry declaration becoming mandatory. Other corridors with the same structure exist, like Saudi and UAE labor visas, the US DS-160, Schengen appointment booking, and new e-arrival card rules in various countries. Which of these is still open needs checking.

Bangladesh also shows the warning sign: once the window opens, ten copycats can show up within two or three months. The ones that last are the first mover, and the developer who shows up in the groups, answers questions, and posts updates.

If it were you

Verdict: Don't chase this plugin, and don't pile into the India visa niche for Bangladesh again. What's worth taking is the template of "a dedicated form-filling tool for visa agents," and moving it to a corridor nobody has built for yet.

Who it fits: developers based in South Asia, the Middle East or Southeast Asia who speak the local language and can get into local agent communities, or who already know a few travel agencies and can land the first paying users.

Who it doesn't fit: people who can only write plugins and won't show up in Facebook groups, and anyone hoping a free tool will grow on store traffic alone. This plugin is the proof: 477 users in four months.

How to do it: Watch policy news for a country opening visas to another country, a new e-visa, or mandatory online declarations. As soon as one starts, ask in local agent groups how long one form takes them. In v1, build passport PDF import and multi-client profiles, charge per use or per month, and skip the free version.

How to get customers: Copy Autofill Pro. Record walkthrough videos in the local language and post them in agent and visa-help Facebook groups and on YouTube. The author answers comments personally and posts with every update. Name the store listing with the exact phrases users search for.

When to be early: Launch within two weeks of the policy going live. In the Bangladesh case, launching 10 days after the reopening already put you in the second wave.

Signs you read it wrong: A month after launch, after several rounds of posting in agent groups, you still have fewer than 10 paying agents. Or the government site redesigns, adds harder verification, or the government ships its own form helper. Then the window is closed.