Find a slot without checking all day.

Practical guide

An appointment checker that runs in your browser

Cancellations put appointments back into booking systems at unpredictable times. An appointment checker keeps the availability page fresh and tells you when the no-slots message goes away, whether that is a driving test, a clinic, a council service or a visa slot.

Setting up a slot watch

Sign in, go to the page that lists dates, and copy the exact message shown when nothing is free. Use Stop when text disappears with that message, a random interval of one to three minutes, and leave the tab open.

Staying signed in

Regular reloads keep many sessions alive, but some portals sign you out after a fixed time. If the page shows a login form, the watch rule will see the message disappear and alert you, so check the tab.

Official portals deserve extra care

Government and visa booking systems often cap how many times you may load a page, and can lock an account that exceeds it. Use long intervals, follow the portal's published rules, and make the booking yourself.

Use intervals that are reasonable for the site and only monitor pages you are allowed to access. The extension does not get around logins, queues, rate limits or other access restrictions.

A worked example: a driving test date

The booking page reads There are no tests available at this centre. Choose Stop when text disappears, paste that sentence, and set Min 90 and Max 180. Leave the tab open with Keep the tab awake on. When a cancellation appears and the sentence is replaced by a list of dates, you are notified and can book.

Visa appointment checker: read the rules first

Visa portals are the strictest. Many publish a limit on page views per day and lock accounts that exceed it, sometimes for days. Work out how many checks your interval adds up to over the hours you plan to run it, and stay well under the limit.

A quick sum

One check every three minutes is 20 an hour, or 160 over an eight-hour day.

If you are alerted but there is no slot

• You were signed out. The message vanished because a login page replaced it.
• The portal showed an error page. Reload by hand and restart.
• The wording changed slightly. Copy the new sentence.

At a glance

• Watch for the message to vanish. Most booking pages show a fixed 'no appointments' line. Its disappearance is your signal.
• Stays signed in longer. Regular reloads keep many sessions from timing out while you wait.
• Runs for hours. Keep the tab awake and set a generous time limit.