I’m moving to Europe! I thought, but I didn’t speak English, I didn’t know the local first language, I had never had a visa, and I had no connections or connections to a foreign country. That was the situation.
You need a visa to stay and work for a long time. If you’re employed by a company in the local country, they will get you one. But I am freelance. I had to manage on my own.
In reality, there are procedures that can only be done in the local country, not in Japan, and the specific requirements for visas are not officially announced by the local administration in the local country, so the situation is fluid. They can change suddenly.
Of course, there are many people who have obtained their own visas, but each person’s situation is different, whether they have extensive experience abroad or are single. In my case, I also wanted to try to get a visa with as many angles as possible as my wife was in a state of anxiety.
When I look back on getting a visa when I moved to Europe, it was a lot of work… I feel that it was.
But if you have someone who knows a lot about the law in that area and can support you, you can proceed with some leeway.
So I decided to turn to an immigration lawyer.
I wanted to live in the Czech Republic, which I researched, and Portugal, which I moved to.
I hope the search for an immigration lawyer will be of some help.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
What is an immigration lawyer?
Immigration Lawyers are lawyers specialising in legal assistance with procedures for international migration, visa acquisition, permanent residence, work permits and citizenship. As immigration procedures are often complex when moving to Europe, immigration lawyers can assist you in the following situations.
Main role.
- Visa application support
- Assistance in obtaining work, student and family visas.
- Obtaining permanent residence and citizenship
- Advice on how to fulfil the requirements and application procedures for permanent residence and citizenship.
- Legal interpretation and advice
- Guides on procedures in accordance with national immigration laws and regulations.
How to find an immigration lawyer
You can search in two ways and eventually find the right immigration lawyer for you.
Search on Google.
In the case of the Czech Republic, I searched for ‘czech republic immigration lawyer’.
Specifically, if you search using the country name + immigration lawyer string, you will find a variety of people.
The key points to look for are if the blog/news has been updated recently and if they have written professional literature on immigration.
Also check what kind of people are on their team. It is better to have an immigration lawyer, but also someone with expertise in accounting and real estate.
When you immigrate, you will need to look into real estate and you will also have to file tax returns. Having someone you can rely on at that time will reduce your anxiety.
See reviews on GoogleMap.
Use GoogleMap to view the target country and search for ‘immigration lawyers’. (It also seemed like a good idea to check the local language and search in that.)
You will then see many immigration lawyers’ offices.
Here, look at the reviews.
It is a good idea to look at the number of reviews, ratings and comments to see if the firm seems reliable overall.
Request visa support.
If you have a hit on an immigration lawyer, you can make a request via the contact page.
In my case, I wrote the following.
Dear immigration lawyers
I hope this e-mail finds you well.
My name is Taro Tanaka and live in Japan.
I would like to obtain for The residence visa.
Could you support us?It takes about two weeks to receive a reply.
This was about the same when contacting immigration lawyers in the Czech Republic and Portugal. This may be the default reply time in Europe. Be patient and wait.
Summary
I got a digital nomad visa for Portugal with the support of an immigration lawyer.
At first I was worried about getting a visa for a country I had never been to, no Czech Republic.
My wife said, ‘You won’t know until you live there, so why not anywhere?’ I was very happy when she said to me.
If you need to be sure of getting it for work or family reasons, or if you want to have some idea of the timetable, you may be able to rely on an immigration lawyer. However, there is no guarantee that you will get a visa.
