Just got the notification of biometric appointment after waiting for more than 3 year…but in the email the law firm suggested an assistance on-site service, costs 450euro, what’s this for? Any one who has experience?
From my perspective, if there’s no any documents need attorney to sign, why would us hire someone go there doing noting?
Uless, uless, by the time I were there on the counter, they don’t have my appointment in their system… Holly molly, just thinking about it, I scared myself out of wits.
I went through the old process where pre-approval was obtained before biometrics so slightly different process, but I was very pleased to have my lawyer attend in Lisbon. Indeed it would have been difficult without her. She knew exactly what to do, get tickets, negotiate with security to get a seat and make sure we were seen within a couple of hours of the appointment time.
Everyone has a different opinions about the value of money but I’d pay €450 to have someone competent help me for such an important event.
I would tend to agree (we paid €500 for the same last Dec., but the more junior partners in the firm would have been less).
It’s annoying to throw another €450 into this black hole. But if you’ve been waiting 3+ years do you really want to chance the clown car circus that is AIMA coming up with something stupid (missing file, computer system down, etc.), now that you finally have an appointment?
This is all based on the assumption your ‘escort’ has experience at the AIMA office you’re booked at. Someone who’s very familiar with how it works there, knows who is useful and who isn’t, etc. That’s what you’re paying for. Make sure they can offer that service.
My lawyer’s firm charges 450 EUR extra for the Cascais appointments but not the Lisbon ones
When I paid my legal fee upfront in 2022, the agreement was I would pay my lawyer’s travel expenses if my biometrics appointment ended up happening outside of Lisbon or Porto. Of course, back in 2022, lawyers were still grabbing whatever appointment slots they could for their clients (but still had a choice among different locations if lucky).
With more than 1000 GV clients, and with almost all biometrics appointments in Jan-Apr(?) 2026 being in Lisbon + Cascais (aka suburb of Lisbon), my law firm has quite the economy of scale taking clients to their biometrics appointments, with perhaps a few extra lawyers staffed in Lisbon instead of Porto at any given time and living in hotels. So them charging 100-200 Euro extra per appointment would have been fair, but 450 Euro extra per Cascais appointment is them trying to put all extra costs on the clients who had the misfortune of being assigned Cascais appointments.
I’ll pay up because they’ve given me solid legal advice, and I intend to use them until I receive my first card (unless I walk away once the new Nationality Law is published). But how lawyers charge me for expenses and OT does affect whether they get future work from me.
Just pay the lawyer. You don’t know how the whole process works, they do, and it can go very, very wrong, especially if you get a cranky AIMA official who doesn’t like how you look or whatever country you are from or is just having a bad day (as did my wife). With a lawyer, you show up, shut up, say nothing, put your hand on the scanner when asked, stand where you are told and get a photo taken when asked, and have no other interaction with AIMA while the lawyer ensures that the AIMA official takes the necessary legally-required actions whether or not they are in the mood to do so.
This might seem cold and uncaring but is your safest and best answer, especially in the current environment.
I am surprised they “suggested” it versus having just included it.
(Ok, if the lawyer is incompetent then it could go wrong anyway… but if your lawyer is incompetent you have much deeper problems than this.)
