Yes, that’s the reason why I ended up selecting them. I work with Francisco Salgueiro and Ana Rita Reis - they are the ones I correspond with, but it’s a big team.
Out of curiosity, are there differences between (i) standard PT GV focused lawyers, and (ii) standard PT immigration lawyers?
Can a proper PT immigration lawyer advise on more-complex immigration scenarios vs the standard GV lawyer?
Or is it “all the same” in term of knowledge and information?..
I think the explanation that you are looking for is that there are a bunch of lawyers who have in the last 2-3 years glommed onto the GV bandwagon because it’s easy and lucrative, versus the ones that have been doing immigration for a long time and that has just included GV.
I don’t know if it is that straightforward though as one “type” being better than the other. A GV-focused lawyer might well be able to handle the more complex situations of GV as well as a non-focused one - there’s going to be similarities and not, whereas knowing what’s what for refugee intake may well not be super useful for your case anyway. But if you’ve only done 50-100 visas in the first place you probably don’t have a ton of insight into complex situations and when I was talking to lawyers there were some that had only done that few.
The relevant question is I think “have you done anything like my situation before and how has it come out”. Of course that doesn’t keep someone from lying to you, but that’s always an issue. Or being biased by fees. Or them having done the situation but screwed it up, e.g. “no you can’t do that” when you actually can. The reality is that these firms have to get experience somehow and you’re just trying to avoid being the guinea pig.
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Haha!!, and further more, many people think pigs are tasty! 
Yes you’re correct; many need to hone in on this aspect.
The issue with GV + citizenship is that the GV hasn’t been around very long so their bureacracy-induced-complications and collectively our scenarios (such as with young kids, etc, which we were discussing on the other thread) for navigating are more than likely to be theoretical.
Hence, am now wondering if I should seek out a long-time immigration specialist vs those who’ve jumped on the “GV bandwagon” 
(as you correctly put it) to try to get closer to the truth.
Yes much agreed that agency incentives are detrimental to strategy. But we both know (or think we do) how one navigates this in the HF world…
That would probably be the course that brings you the most comfort. Of course I would expect to pay that person a fair bit of coin. My experience with pricing was that the longer you’d been at it, the more you charged. Of course TANSTAAFL applies. But maybe that investment will work out well for you if it saves you on GV fees while meeting your goal. Or you will learn that it won’t work. I think the challenge is whether or not they will give you the information you want before you pay them.
To me, the fees are relatively negligible compared to the cost of all applicants not obtaining citizenship (in this case the entire family). Costs, as you know, are not always financial
Personally, I am confused about young children currently on a GV application and their PR renewals once the adults have obtained their citizenship, but the young kid is still not 18 and therefore cannot immediately obtain citizenship (based on everything I’ve gathered).
The young children need to keep renewing their PR every 5 years until they are 18, and then apply for citizenship.
For children, the renewals of the PR (not to be confused with the renewal of the 2-year GV investment PR which also needs ongoing renewal during the initial 5-years) may not be as easy as the first PR (after the GV 5-year time horizon which is purely based on the investment program) as subsequent PR renewals appear to be based on physical presence within portugal.
This is an offshore pathway to citizenship. Onshore pathways are a different mechanism (though a LOT of people seem to be confused by this).
Understood. I think at this point the only way you’re going to find an answer that makes you comfortable is to speak with a good lawyer.
I don’t think people are especially confused, it’s just that there isn’t a clear answer period; the only clear automatic answer is the justica.pt one and that isn’t the one you want.
To the point of the PR, though, there are two different PR permits - one for “normals” and one for ARI. The requirements are different with respect to stay. It’s just confusing because there are two different ones and the second one is a little obscure to find (and I suspect it’s not popular). @susanayang’s summary on this is correct.
Thanks and well appreciated
The ARI version of the PR (unless I am mistaken) is a 5-year renewal (not sure if at the higher “GV” PR renewal rate but the initial GV investment must continued to be maintained), unless I am mistaken.
Is something that allows the ARI PR duration after the first batch of 5-years (total of 10-years in from the initial GV investment!) to be renewed without physical presence and indefinitely?… this may well be the case…
I can see a scenario where there are 3 ARI PR applications for young children before they can immediately apply for citizenship.
Does anyone know about the EU family card, and what it entails? At the age of 18, can minors-turned-18 on the EU family card immediately apply for PT citizenship at the age of 18? What about any other citizenship (just for curiosity)?
@susanayang’s posts have been indeed helpful as have many on this forum
Regarding :
I have seen some avid discussion about how people immediately want to move to Portugal after getting the GV. As you know, this is an offshore program, but onshore programs are much more simple and less costly (to the point where in the majority of cases doing the offshore program to be immediately onshore would make absolutely no sense… but I digress)