How hard is it for immigrants to fill in government forms? We tested 148.

For comparison: the United States

29 of the 32 US PDF forms in our sample (91%) have fields you can type into, and 32 of them are in English. The US sample is small and made of forms immigrants commonly need (immigration, tax, passport), so it says nothing about the country as a whole.

How we tested

• This is a hand-picked sample of 148 forms that immigrants commonly need in 9 EU countries and the United States. It is not a census. The percentages describe this sample only; they say nothing about a country or its government, and we do not compare countries.
• Every form comes from the website of the authority that issues it, checked between October 11, 2026 and November 1, 2026. Index pages, portals, duplicates, entries we could not verify and forms that are not a single PDF were left out.
• Fillable: the PDF has fields you can type into. Flat: it looks like a form but has no fields. Online only: we found no PDF to download. Couldn't download: we could not get the PDF with an automated download (the site refused it, or the link gave no PDF), and we did not work around it.
• Language is the language of the form itself. A form counts as having an English version when English is on the form itself, as in bilingual forms.
• “Formamigo fills it”: we ran each PDF through the same upload checks and fill code the app uses. A fillable form counts as yes when the upload is accepted, Formamigo can write into its fields and the values are still there after the file is reopened. A flat form counts as yes when the upload is accepted and Formamigo finds blanks to write in. We did not check by hand that every blank has the right label, and labels on flat forms are less reliable than on fillable ones, so always check the preview.
• Online-only forms, forms we couldn't download, scanned images and files Formamigo rejects (more than 30 pages or 10 MB, for example) count as no.
• 14 forms were not run through our tests. They are shown as “Not tested”.
• Limits: Formamigo does not support scanned documents or photos of forms. We could not download 6 forms automatically. Online-only forms are listed for completeness. The sample per country is small.

Common questions

• Why can't I type in this PDF form?

  Most likely it is a flat PDF: it looks like a form but has no fields, so a PDF reader has nothing to type into. In our sample, 45% of the EU PDF forms are flat. Upload it to Formamigo: it finds the blank lines and boxes and fills them, and you check the result in a preview. If the file is only a scan or a photo, Formamigo can't read it.

• Is there an English version of EU government forms?

  Often not. 81% of the EU PDF forms in our sample have no English version, though some are bilingual. Check the authority's page first. Formamigo explains each question in your language and writes your answers in the form's language.

• Can I fill a flat PDF on my phone?

  Yes. Upload the PDF from your phone's browser; the chat, the preview and the list of fields are tabs on a small screen. Files up to 10 MB and 30 pages are accepted. Filling and previewing are free; you only pay to download.

• Can you fill a scanned form or a photo of a form?

  No. If a PDF is only an image, Formamigo refuses it because there is no text to read. Look for the original digital PDF on the authority's website, or print it and write by hand.

• Can Formamigo help with online applications like SPID or ANEF?

  No. Formamigo fills PDF forms that you upload. If the application is only an online service, there is no PDF to upload, and we can't log in or fill in a website for you.

• Is it free to try?

  Yes. Filling and previewing are free; you only pay to download the finished PDF (pricing).