How to vet a local immigration lawyer in three calls

Most relocation failures are not legal errors. They are vendor failures — a firm that knew the route in theory and learned your file while the clock ran.

Why the vetting question matters more than the price

A lawyer's fee is a rounding error next to a delayed start date. One month of a salary that cannot begin, or a client project that slips a quarter, costs more than the difference between a cheap and an expensive firm. So vet on throughput, not on price.

The three calls

1. "How many cases like mine did you file in the last 90 days?"

Not "do you handle this route" — a firm will always say yes. Ask for a number and a period. A firm that files the route weekly answers immediately. A firm that files it twice a year hesitates, and the hesitation is the answer.

2. "What was the last refusal on this route, and what caused it?"

This separates practitioners from readers. Someone who runs cases has a specific, recent, slightly uncomfortable story: a missing contribution, a contract that did not prove the relationship, a document apostilled too late. A generic answer about "incomplete documentation" means they are reciting a checklist.

3. "Who actually prepares the file — you, an associate, or a paralegal?"

Perfectly normal answers exist: a paralegal prepares, a lawyer reviews. But the answer must be concrete and stable. If the person you speak to cannot describe the process inside their own firm, the file will drift between hands.

Red flags that cost real money

• They quote a success rate without being able to say how many cases it is based on.
• They take the case before seeing the documents that usually break it — tax filings, contributions, the employment contract.
• They promise a date for the authority's decision. Nobody can promise that.
• They suggest describing an arrangement in terms that do not match reality. That is not a shortcut; it is the file's weakest point.

What good looks like

A firm that answers all three questions in one call, asks for tax and contribution records before quoting, and hands you a written list of what has to be corrected before filing. That list is worth more than any discount.

For companies: make this a standing test

If you move people regularly, vet two providers per country and keep both warm. Single-vendor dependency is where SLAs quietly disappear: the moment your provider is at capacity, your cases wait and you have nothing to compare against.