BALCELLS Group Bewertungen 63

Ainhoa and the Balcells Group team were absolutely fantastic! They provided clear communication and support throughout the entire process, always keeping us updated and making everything as smooth as possible. Their professionalism, patience, and attention to detail truly made a difference, especially when dealing with tax forms and property details. Thank you, Ainhoa, for your exceptional service and dedication!

I had the same experience as Mauricio Tamayo who wrote a review here as well except he had better luck than me cuz it seems he got his visa in the end. Balcells was unprofessional, unresponsive and time wasting. They were impossible to get a hold of most times taking 4 to 6 days to answer a simple email. Not to mention all the holidays they take between the Catalan and national holidays. They totally go MIA and leave their clients hanging whenever they feel like it. Thanks to Balcells and the poor job that Beatriz Lategui did with my case I have been in Spain almost a year without a visa. The digital nomad visa was a visa that I totally qualified for and all the documentation needed. I am very proactive and did a lot of research and asked her numerous preventive questions to address potential issues and circumstances. When I arrived in Spain Beatriz said that there were some documents missing and just when we thought that was going to be a problem the documents appeared within days from the US and sent to me on time. So that was not the reason for the delay. Beatriz did exactly what I asked her not to do which was submit my application towards the end of my 90 days as tourist eating up any buffer time. She blamed it on documents but none of the documents took time to be found or arrive. 20 days later when "extranjería" responded I find out she had submitted several legal documents with a basic translation rather than a "sworn translation" which is the standard procedure. What visa lawyer does that? not even an amateur makes that mistake. They claimed that they wanted to save me money but they never ran that by me, which means they robbed me of the choice. In the end even thought they said they would take care of the translations, I had to find the translator myself cuz she sent me a link for me to do it instead of doing it herself, 4 days prior to the due date. She submitted everything in the nick of time or late. Then she asked for an "extension" only telling me after the fact that the office of "extranjería" may or may not accept it. what?? and you tell me that after the fact? In the end the office considered my case "desistido" which means the equivalent to not having submitted things appropriately or on time. I switched lawyers to a more competent attorney but she inherited a "problematic case" and had to file an appeal which in Spain they take up to 8 months to answer if they do at all. Thanks to Balcells my artistic career here has been at a complete stand still because I am not legal to work. The nomad visa allowed me to take advantage of some degree of local work but that was not possible since they messed it all up. I ended up in limbo in the country and now have to leave for 90 days to come back and start all over again. They are horrible inconsiderate people and they don't give a damn about their clients. I would not waste any time or money with them. They are nothing but a headache and a bad experience.

We had an excellent experience with Marina Lozano at Balcells. We bought an apartment in Barcelona and applied for a residency visa. It was a complex process that we never could have navigated without Marina's help. She was always responsive to our questions in short order, and made the whole thing possible. I have no hesitation to recommend Marina and Balcells!

Paid 80 Euros for an NIE appointment, and despite multiple calls and emails, never even got a reply. Asked about accountancy, and was quoted double everywhere else. Absolute con merchants.

I underwent my digital nomad visa process with Balcells, and the experience was dreadful. I'm not sure if this is a common issue, but the lawyer who assisted me, Alejandro Pérez, provided very poor follow-up, to say the least.

During our initial call, I explained my objectives to determine if the visa was suitable for me. However, the information he gave me was incorrect regarding what I was looking for, which I discovered after consulting with various other lawyers.

Concerning the visa process and its cost, the fees were significantly higher compared to other firms. I was aware of this and expected good service in return. Yet, he did not respond to my emails unless I persisted. He required me to travel to Spain to submit the application in person, waiting until the last day to do so and even asking me to extend my trip. Then, he incorrectly submitted the documentation because of a PDF that couldn't be opened, leading to the rejection of my application. To resubmit it, I had to return to Spain and pay the governmental fee for the process again, which, coming from Mexico, was not an insignificant expense for me.

Once the application was submitted, he again stopped responding to emails. Whenever I needed information, I had to call the office or send multiple emails until he would finally respond weeks later. At last, he filed a document that should have been submitted weeks earlier, which resulted in the approval of my visa. Later, when arranging the appointment to obtain my residency card, which involves paying a fee that the firm covered, there were issues at the police station. They questioned who made the payment since it was incorrectly made out with a series of nines instead of my passport or NIE number, forcing me to pay the fee once again.

After this, I reached out to Alejandro to inquire about the appointment for picking up my card and informed him about the fee issue, yet I have not received a response to this day, which no longer surprises me.

In summary, hiring this firm means paying more than at other places for consultancy and follow-up that, regrettably, are not provided. If you have the chance, especially for digital nomad visas, I suggest looking for another firm or an independent lawyer. Do not waste your money with Balcells.

A whole month of delay just for the lawyer to provide me with this simple answer: whether they received my documents that I emailed to them or not, and when they intend to start my process, sums up my experience with this team. The only action this team has taken for me is to halt my process. I have now started it with another lawyer, causing me a lot of trouble, and for a whole month, it has been night and day hassle for me. They did not even have the decency to send a message saying they do not want to proceed with my case and wait for us. It was a very bad experience, and I would not recommend working with them to anyone.

I paid 75€ for a consultation with an immigration lawyer Ines Molina. At the end of the consultation the lawyer informed me she would follow up on some questions she couldn’t answer, find out some information and come back to me. Their own website also states that following a consultation, the lawyer will email you a summary of what was discussed.

Two weeks later and I have not had any communication whatsoever from the lawyer. I have sent her emails which have been ignored. I also complained via the contact section on the website and got a response from the company apologising and advising they would ask her to contact me, with the CEO Christian Balcells copied into the email and still nothing. I sent a third email which was also ignored.

I am keen to progress my situation and was planning on moving forward with the assistance of the company. I was impressed during the consultation however do not know what went wrong after that and why I have been left completely in the dark. They cannot respond to emails, have zero communication with customers and have extremely poor customer service.

This is not a company I would recommend to anyone.

Horrible experience... Incompetent people... 😞😞😞

We lost a huge amount of money and time because of them.

Wouldn't recommend them to the worst enemy...

Would give them -100 if there's an option.

Wouldn’t recommend working with Balcells Group even to my worst enemy. We worked with them on our Spanish DNV application which they made beyond stressful by being unresponsive, unreliable, and unprofessional, with constant delays.

If you want to pay a lawyer to make mistakes while you do the work yourself, go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend it.

A few examples: they gave us the green light to come to Spain once we gathered and translated all the documentation and they checked it, only to tell us that the translation wasn’t done by a proper translator 5 days before our flight. They had the docs for over a month prior. This resulted in a delay of two weeks during which we wasted time and money, as we couldn’t get a refund for the flight and AirBnB, along with the additional expenses for the new translations. They admitted their mistake.

Then, when we were ready to apply, we asked to see the documentation before they submit it, only to find completely different names in the registration. Again, they admitted their mistake.

Then, when we were asked for additional documents, they completely missed our email saying they can translate them, which resulted in us almost missing the deadline. Because they went on vacation, we were left to find a translator on our own and handle the whole process without their help.

The application process which usually takes up to 1.5 months lasted over 3 months with their “help”.

Finally, when we asked them to adjust our outstanding balance due to these issues, they never responded.

I started my Student Visa application with Balcells in November, since then I have been messed about and left in the dark about the progress of my application. I have spent a lot of money to gather the appropriate documents and now they are refusing to give me a refund as they claim that they have carried out the work ‘properly’, despite me still being without my visa. So I am now a student left in a hard place financially, please do not waste your time nor money with Balcells.

Wish I read these reviews before paying for the initial call. Spent 75 euros, they said they’d email through some details and never did. Chased over 3 weeks over 6 or 7 emails without any response and simply ignored. They’ll take your 75 euros and not respond again.

Atrocious. Waste of time & money. They only take first online consultations video calls, then ignore you after that. They don’t answer any follow up questions via email and on the call they don’t understand English well enough to be able to answer your questions. And their answers are always vague, inconclusive or don’t correlate to the question you’ve asked. Absolute nightmare. Frustrating beyond belief.

You need to pay 75 € just to get a quote from them.... They don't give a single useful reply and just try to convince you to pay. Their whatsapp service is horrible and when you finally do get a worker then they're very rude and absolutely unhelpful.

Completely unresponsive. Avoid at all costs. They are only interested in charging you for the initial consultation. They took so long much of my documentation is now out of date and needs to be renewed.
I have had to change to another immigration lawyer to get things moving. Very frustrating.

I paid 75 euros for a consultancy and was immediately skeptical towards the need of this service in the first place. After doing some research it has become abundantly clear that the only reason they have the availability that they do is because they book all of the available appointments ahead of time and re-sell them to people at extortionate prices... A residency card process will cost you about 8.50 GBP and all of the things you need to provide them are readily listed online, particularly if you are an EU resident the need for this service is zero. They will moreover try to overcomplicate the procedure and make it sound like you desperately need them to be able to complete the application. Just go there with social service payment OR private health insurance and a rental contract and you dont need to pay these scammers at all.

This is the worst place to put your trust and your money. I worked with Lahesa Bokoko and Christian Balcells the owner. The one who all the so-called reviews rave about. What an absolute joke. They are the cheapest on the immigration market that's for sure. A simple 380 euro and you can get a resident permit to Spain. Well you're putting your future in the wrong hands. The communication is abysmall - unorganized, barely answer after pressing for information and having Christian Balcells on the email is a waste of time. The worst part? After rushing to get the documents needed into Balcells ... they don't confirm receipt. These docs are your personal information just out there floating around. Be careful with that. The best part was when I submitted all the necessary docs it was only half of what a real law firm requested of me to finish the process. That's right, I started and had to finish the process with another law firm because Balcells was such a mess. It got so bad working with Lahesa that I'd write directly to Christian for help. He'd respond with a 1 liner saying nothing and never come back. It was maddening for a customer putting heavy personal info to an agency that was sooo easy to see - didn't have it together. Read those 5 star reviews with REAL CAUTION. Christian Balcells has got himself so much business he's totally overhwhelmed and you are a number. You're really on your own working with Balcells and you deserve more when you're looking to integrate to a new country. You deserve to know what's going on and that someone can help. They don't care. It's really obvious and be prepared your paper work won't be complete in the end. Good luck to you.

"La semana pasada conocí a Balcells Group en línea a través del sitio web Abogados de inmigración España. Sitio muy útil ya que pude hacer una cita de Zoom de inmediato con uno de sus abogados. Gonzalo G. Monclús, me guió durante todo el proceso, escucha atentamente a tratar para obtener una imagen completa y no perder ningún detalle para brindar una solución constructiva en muy buen inglés. Todos estos factores lo caracterizan como un profesional que trabaja para el cliente y está realmente ahí para ayudar. ¡Obtuve mi tarjeta verde tan rápido! Nunca podría haberlo hecho esto yo mismo en España. Recomiendo encarecidamente a Gonzalo y esta experiencia me llevó a confiar en Balcells Group y también buscaré su servicio de impuestos para expatriados en España".

"Last week I came across Balcells Group online through the website Immigration lawyers Spain. Very helpful site since I could immediately make a Zoom appointment with one of their lawyers. Gonzalo G. Monclús, he guided me through the whole process, listens carefully to trying to get full picture and not to miss any details in order to provide constructive solution in very good English. All these factors characterize him as professional who works for the client and is really there to help. Got my greencard so fast! Could never have done this myself in Spain. I would highly recommend Gonzalo and this experience led me to trust Balcells Group and will also look into their Spain expat tax service!"

Elegimos trabajar con Balcells Group Lawyers después de ver un vídeo en YouTube y, aunque un poco escépticos al tratar con ellos desde el extranjero, recibimos un servicio excelente hasta su finalización. Nuestro abogado, Gonzalo G. Monclús, ha sido fantástico y ha hecho que nuestro proceso de traslado sea fácil y sin problemas. Recibimos un gran asesoramiento y una excelente comunicación (¡también en inglés!).

¡Muy recomendable!

=== English ===

We chose to work with Balcells Group Lawyers after watching a YouTube video and, while a bit skeptical dealing with them from abroad, we received excellent service until completion. Our lawyer, Gonzalo G. Monclús has been fantastic and made our relocation process easy and smooth. We received great advice and excellent communication (in English too!).

Highly recommended!

Disaster. To speed up my application for my visa I used Balcells to ensure that everything was submitted correctly. The process should have taken a maximum of 3 months, after 6 months it was rejected through incorrect information being supplied. Balcells didn't check properly and their attitude was, well that's what we normally send them! Very sloppy service! I am now using a local lawyer who is much more thorough.

I had a smooth and effortless application for a Spanish residence card with these guys. Very professional and I got the card without any issues. I'll be getting in touch with Balcells group again when it's time to apply for a Spanish passport. Highly recommend.

Based on my experience, I suspect the other review left here (at the time of writing there's only my review and another review that's negative) is a fake one from a competitor. You can check out Balcells Group's Google reviews for confirmation of their quality service.