Switching lawfirms mid application?

Residencies & citizenships Portugal Golden Visa
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I’m just going to say it, IAS is pretty damn slow to do anything. And don’t give the best advice, like for a full year they were telling me a lawsuit to get my biometrics wasn’t a good idea, only to reverse course once it became clear it was the only way anyone was getting anything done. Currently, it’s been two weeks I’ve been trying to get them to make a motion in the lawsuit to get the judge to say “Hey AIMA, you’ve taken the legally alloted time to process the biometrics - give the guy his residency card already”, which is pretty time sensitive… on top of having to ask them to do it myself, it’s still not getting done even with the time sensitive nature of the Nationality Law changes looming.

I’m extremely impressed by Madalena Monteiro’s speed at getting things done, and proactiveness with the latest Amicus Curiae… I’m willing to pay to have someone like that in my corner, and wish I had from the start. Between the several months for IAS to submit my application, to the year lost without filing a lawsuit under bad advice, I would have my residency card in hand and at least have a chance at getting grandfathering protections if the TC forces a Nationality Law rewrite.

BUT: this close to the finish line of getting my residency card, mid-lawsuit that has a sympathetic judge that already forced AIMA to give me a biometrics appointment… is this a terrible idea that has a large chance of going wrong? What do you all think? Please let me know.

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I changed lawyers due to similar lackluster representation and am I glad I did it, but it was stressful. That said, with access to the portal, your new attorneys should be able to redirect AIMA contact info to themselves easily. I had the password and my previous lawfirm cooperated in sending over their files. I continue to worry that some database somewhere is sending emails to the wrong place, but so far that doesnt seem to be true.

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I changed from IAS to another attorney a few years ago for similar reasons and very glad I did. It was a bit disconcerting, though, to have Rita tell me all the things that “would” go wrong and that they (IAS) couldnt help me to make things right. None of those things transpired and I believe that I have seen things. move along “faster”

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I changed firm mid-applicaton. My old firm couldn’t initiate a court case, the transition was smooth, a court case was then filed (and succeed).
Perhaps ask your chosen new firm their thoughts.
The court cases are just a judge reading papers so no particular reason the court should care who’s representing the plaintiff (but that’s my opinion)

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