Hi. I would appreciate to know how much everyone is paying to lawyers for this. Does 9800 Euros initially and than 3000 for each renewal seem reasonable? Do these Golden visa lawyers also check the real estate transaction for any problems with title and property? Tax representative at 990 Euros per year?
Thank you very much.
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There’s a lot of it-depends-es. How much service do you expect from them? Are they going to pick you up at the airport and find you a hotel when you go for the SEF appointment or are they going to just meet you at the office at 9am? Are they going to update you daily, weekly, when they feel like it? Is it for funds which are relatively easy or is it for property which can be quite complicated? Is that for just you or for a family and how many in the family, since there is additional work per-person. Will they do all the work or leave you to do the applications with the bank and funds or whatever? Does that include travel to a SEF office not in the town where their office is? (You can sometimes get SEF appointments sooner in the remote offices but then the lawyer has to drive there and that consumes more billable time.)
Pure tax rep you can do yourself for near nothing via nifonline or others. However 990/yr is not out of line with what others charge. Ask whether that includes accountant services to actually calculate your taxes and file them, or if they’re just going to receive your mail and forward notices; obviously that takes more work.
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Hi. Thanks for attempting to answer. We don’t expect “white-glove service” (airport pickup, hotel etc). It is for me and my wife and 9 year old daughter. Not sure if funds or property yet. They are going to do all the applications and work like that. They are based in Lisbon and not sure if they will travel to another SEF office.
What is the typical range that they charge? also for each renewal (3000 euro reasonable for that?)
How comprehensive are services like NIF-online and Bordr?
Thank you very much.
nifonline/bordr just do the basic tax rep. they would do nothing else. hence why so inexpensive. though you can find others to help with accountancy services at additional charge. note though that some legal firms charge $1000/yr and don’t offer accountancy help for that price either.
1000/person for renewals seems normal and not too much.
as for the 9k, maybe? I don’t know.
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Hello. Thank you for your input. How much accounting service would we need beyond what bordr offers if we still reside in the usa and rent a place there or have a fund there?
dunno, sorry. will def be different depending on whether you have property or do a fund. Lots will be different depending on that choice.
Someone shared a list of lawyers with their respective fees on another thread. That can be a good reference point.
I have been emailing with a lawyer whose fees for the entire 5 year process are €21,433.
Additionally, the SEF fees appear to be €13,847 in total.
Broken down annually, inclusive of legal and SEF, it appears to be:
Year 1 - €15,433
fund review - €2,500
NIF - €325
tax prep - €750
SEF processing fee - €533
SEF app fee - €5325
Legal process fee - €6000
Year 2
tax prep - €750
Year 3 -€5,413
tax prep - €750
Legal renewal fee - €2000
SEF renewal fee - €2663
Year 4
tax prep - €750
Year 5 - €5,413
tax prep - €750
Legal renewal fee - €2000
SEF renewal fee - €2663
Year 6 -€5,413
tax prep - €750
Legal renewal fee - €2000
SEF renewal fee - €2663
I may have years 5 (second renewal) and 6 (citizenship) duplicated.
It would seem that, excluding fund setup fees, there is 10% administrative costs to the minimum €350k fund entry requirement.
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Hey Joe, your contributions here were most helpful for me! Even if brief 
Since it seems you’ve progressed quite a bit in the GV journey, would you be able to share how much approximately we should expect to spend on a lawyer to help us with the GV via investment funds process?
Were there any other professionals besides the lawyer you needed to enlist the help of?
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Hey, a bit off topic, but I will risk answering this one with the experience I had so far:
Opening NIF, tax representative and opening bank account: You can pay from nothing to 1.000 euros to get this done. If you know someone in portugal that is willing to be your tax representative thats the cheapest way, otherwise you will need to pay 60-600 EUR to get it done. Opening NIF can be done by your tax representative friend, or you can pay 60-1000 EUR for a professional to do it. If you are in Portugal the bank account can be easy, otherwise, I suggest lieasing with your fund - if they are good they will be able to help you out with that.
Golden Visa application: Ive seen prices ranging from 5 to 9 k for a 3 people family. Usually the investor pays from 3-5 k, spouse 1-2 k and minors 1 k.
Trip to portugal to deliver documents and collect finger prints: This depends on you, but its a cost to take into account
SEF fees: You can get the actual values online, but I am conting on about 6 k per person + around 2 k per person for each renewal (every 2 years)
Tax advice and RNH: If you dont want to deal with your taxes all by yourself you might need to pay another 1-5 k for legal advice and an accountant.
As many people said, most of the job is operational. My sugggestion is that you speak to at least 3-4 lawyers and get the one you are most confortable with.
Good luck!
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Thank you for all that! I did already know of all these benchmarks regarding costs and timing, but I replied to Joe’s comment where he shared with us the lawyer he was using 
Looks as though he got far with the investment fund (same route and fund I want to invest in) and his lawyer seemed to be helpful along the way, so I wanted to contact the same lawyer and am curious as to the costs he incurred.
Ops! lol
Anyways, let me know if you think these numbers make sense. If I had not started the process with my current lawyer I would ask for options as well. Tbh I was not 100% happy with any of the ones I spoke, but I guess thats just the way it is.
Rue, thanks so much for sharing this. Super helpful! Any chance you can share the name of your lawyer/law firm?