"Teach A Man To Fish And You Feed Him For A Lifetime"
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime"
Think about that one.
How does this relate to immigration?
Throughout your life as an immigrant, whether you remain in Spain forever or migrate elsewhere down the line, you'll have a lot of processes to complete. A lot of paperwork to fill out. ID cards to obtain. Appointments to make. Terms to understand.
Some people just want to pay someone to make it all happen. They want to buy the fish. I believe it is a thousand times more beneficial to help immigrants fully understand their own processes and systems... I would rather teach them to fish. When a process is intricate and involving dire consequences in the event of a mistake, you hire someone. When the process is a normal part of immigrant life... why not dig in and learn how to be self-sufficient?
I personally spent over a full year volunteering to make immigration appointments and prepare paperwork for others, free of charge, for all different types of visas and residencies in order to fully learn the system in a hands-on way. I wanted to be able to help people, and the best way to learn is by doing! The joy I got from every one of those people after assisting them with those processes was as priceless as the knowledge I was building along the way. But the feeling when I can TEACH people to become self sufficient? That tops everything else. Seeing people be able to take control and fully understand how their residency works, taking out the taboo that even making simple appointments is some high-level thing only an attorney can do... it's a sorely needed service (a FREE one I offer, mind you) in the immigration space.
For example, over the year of free work I did, I started asking questions when someone told me they couldn't find any available immigration appointments in a province I knew to be wide open for them at pretty much any time of year. Over and over I uncovered a simple mistake they were all making that caused them to not see all of the available appointments, where just one change in a selection opened up a list of 3-5 provincial offices they could easily choose appointments in! Knowing that this was happening, I had a choice. I would have been able to start charging these people hundreds of euros, to make them an appointment it would have taken me less than 60 seconds to make. It would have resulted in them believing I had some special "immigration consultant superpower" or that my experience gave me special access to appointments they could not see. My strong sense of justice and morality would never allow me to do that and instead, I just get extremely angry inside when I see anyone charge 500 euros to make an appointment - even if it comes with helping to prep the paperwork. It just isn't that difficult. In provinces with more immigration happening and more residents in general, it can take more time to find one - requiring more time over more days to check for them - but I've never seen the equivalent of 500 euros (sometimes more!?) in work for this task. And yes, it's something you can and should do on your own. A reminder that if a lawyer or consultant is insisting you cannot do something on your own, they are only seeing you as a dollar sign and not a human with a brain and a desire to take charge of your life abroad.
Now, is that to say it's wrong if you want to just hire someone to do it all? No, and MANY people just don't have an interest in ever navigating even one aspect of life abroad on their own. If you have plenty of money and no desire, you pay the fees and you have the things done for you. Ya esta!
But if you like knowing how it works, what is being done, what needs to happen, and are interested in learning how to fish instead of being given a fish? You found the right team. We love to explain everything that is happening, the whys and the hows, and want to EMPOWER YOU - while still being your safety net should you need some extra help.
