I have an appointment coming in in January and I wonder what are the reasons to use a lawyer if any?
It’s already $10,000 before paying another $2000 to lawyers.
I assume since I have all my original documents in order - I can travel from the US, give my documents, may with my credit or debit cards and be done with it in a day.
Can anyone weight it if I am overly naive or stupid or reckless? I think it’s a ripoff to ask for a $1000+ for a few hours of work from their part.
How do you expect to handle any issues if you don’t speak Portuguese? Do you know the regulations on what needs to be submitted? Are you aware that if you don’t get it done right at this appointment, it may be years before you get a second one?
You might think you have all your documents, but can you be sure? Also, last I checked, they charge more for an application if the documents haven’t been verified by a lawyer.
You’ve put €500,000 into an investment. I wouldn’t cheap out on hiring a lawyer to safeguard the process.
I’m not going to try to convince people to be sensible after they write “I’m going to do this crazy thing and I won’t take no for an answer!” I’ll just relax and smile pleasantly.
It’s not like it’s a matter of life and death, anyway. Experience is a great teacher, up to a point.
My question was mostly about how to get it for $500 if possible to address your questions above.
It doesn’t sound like a $1500 jobs to me.
What if they charged you $10,000, would you all still say “it’s a small price to pay if you invested a bigger sum” and laugh at me?
Did anyone do it cheaper or asked their friends to help?
Perhaps but I think such a lawyer would have been mentioned here already and probably proved to be quite popular.
As mentioned above, you need someone who has a coat hanger. What you are looking for is someone who has a coat hanger but has no idea they can charge you a lot based on your need for the coat hanger versus the “normal” value of a coat hanger. Unfortunately lawyers are, by and large, smart.
It would be different if one could take their own translator, those can be hired for cheap. But you can’t legally. Hence, the coat hanger problem.
Thanks for an answer. Truly.
How much did you pay for a bio appointment if you don’t mind me asking?
I think it’s a lot of money and I don’t understand why some folks gets very annoyed by questions like that but totally fine to debate other topics for thousands of messages.
Not everyone has a willingness to pay thousands of dollars easily and I don’t get the argument that if you bought an expensive suit, you should think about the price of a tie or a shirt or a shoe.
lawyer gave me advice, upto me to lawsuit or not and i did.
filed a lawsuit april 2024 or may 2024, through the regular route, as advised by lawyer.
got bios january 15, 2025. lawyer showed up in porto, came from lisbon by herself.
got the cards april 2025.
one must know how to use lawyer. then decide whether to take that advice or not.
i imagine if i decided to save the 600 lawyer representation fee. not ask anything. id be behind those that filed lawsuit and won. still waiting for bios and the cards
Congrats on getting this far with GV without a lawyer, without speaking the language. Maybe you can get all the way. I couldn’t, or at least, evaluated my probability of success without a second trip as slim.
Using a lawyer familiar with GV gives you (1) a first view about whether your papers are in order, (2) a chance that the lawyer will be able to supplement the file if your papers are deficient in some way*, (3) alerts you to the possibility that there are other requirements you haven’t anticipated**.
*Specifically, you are now in the window for getting an FBI certificate for your appointment. It needs to be apostilled, but there are furloughs in that DOS section, and it is operating on the fees collected so far, and the odds are increasing daily that you won’t be able to provide for one at your appointment.
**For an upcoming renewal, my lawyer advised of additional, undocumented, requests for additional documentation they had faced.
To be clear I did pay lawyers for the original application but I wonder If I should keep paying and how much. Every lawyer has a different price tag for a bio appointment.
I believe you don’t need to get a new fbi certificate with a new process, you just need an original of what you submitted previously.
