On several occasions I have asked questions I had in this forum and have received excellent responses. However, I feel I could use the advice of an immigration lawyer since there are just too many personal factors to consider and laws seem to be too complicated to sort it out myself.
Do you know any competent, English-speaking immigration lawyer in Zurich? (I speak some French but my German is yet just too bad). I'm looking for a lawyer in Zurich who is familiar with the non-EU cases, knows the federal as well as ZH and VD cantonal immigration laws and has experienced with cases for people with advanced degrees.
If you don't know such a lawyer, do you know how I can search for one?
Juergen Bouli at www.bcd.bz was very helpful and successful for my permit issue (twice) and several permit renewals. I was a non_EU, but had a job offer (both times for permit issue).
He communicates very well in english and appears to have some "connections". In my case if was Kt. Zurich only.
The receptionist speaks basic english but at least 2 of the lawyers speak excellent english (spanish, italian, french and other languages too). They deal with immigration law so you may want to give them a call. They are very helpful over the phone.
Quite the contrary based on our experience. They were anything but helpful. Staff's English skill was poor to quite bad based on our 3 separate interactions with them. The lawyer with whom I spoke displayed a sense of entitlement and seemed only interested in getting money up front without even discussing credentials or the firm's experience with immigration issues. Make your own judgement but based on the above, we decided to avoid.
I would like to ask if Mr Bouli fairly efficient in his work? i have a renwal case that was rejected on first application as i would be unemployed when my current permit expires ( i am non -EU on unemployment insurance with advanced degree and experience).
reading your post i called mr Bouli and he gave me hourly rate of 380CHF, and refused to overview and give me overall estimate on my case, and wanted me first to engage him. which i found a little unusal from lawyers. normally lawyer give an estimate of how much time or cost they think this would incur before you commit.
I would like to learn about your experience. was your renwal cases fairly easy and charged reasonable work hours? was it like 2-3hours work , more. less?
I saw a govermental public lawyer last week for quick advice and he informed me my case is fairly easy, but he had only 20 min or so to give an opinion.
i do not speak german and hence would still resort to lawyer to help me draft my application and answer the questions requested by my canton (Schwyz), I am wondering if i shall seek cheaper lawyers or just pay the price of Bouli.
You can have any number of advanced degrees in advanced bollocks as you so wish, but without a job they are useless and unless you have either a job or a shed load of cash, you will have difficulty getting a resident/work permit in Switzerland. Even more so with the vote of 9th February being non EU.
By the way, the lawyer realises he is onto a good thing and probably won't help to much apart from relieve you of money. I think you will find that the law ifs federal but applied by the canton and which has more importance than federal law
(don't forget to add 8% TVA on to the quoted figure of Chf 380.--/hour !)
Thank you Today Only for your input. I know that is primal to have a job, but I was hoping to use the fact I am receiving unemployment insurance as a base and add to this the lawyer's relation with the officials. I guess this might play a role since the federal law is read differently by different cantons/people then mybe the lawyer can have influence here to make them read it in a positive way. I am hoping !
Actually lawyers reads it differently, I saw two public lawyers, those that give quick advices, and each have different opinion: one was more positive that I can get it extend it , the other was reluctant and stressed having the job as key since receiving unemployment insurance as a base for extention is not a right. and both were not sure how fast the Feb vote will be implemented in the law. so I am crossing fingers.
I was hoping that nomad66 would give me light on Bouli's relationship with officials influence and whether in his cases he always had a job offer at hand or was he also unemployed and looking for a job when he got his permit renewed.
Only Today if you could add something more here or a suggestion , would appreciate it
thanks again for your input and for highlighting the 8% VAT.
Frankly, I’d go with the lawyer that thinks you can get it extended. Certainly if a lawyer’s not prepared to give you an idea of costs except for his hourly rate I’d avoid him.
I must say though, that from recent comments here on the forum being unemployed doesn’t help when permit renewal comes up. They seem to be using that as a reason not to extend more than they did in the past.
Thank you Medessa, I am seeing another specialized lawyer for a consultancy, to help me decide which way to go.
especially now the insurance Kasse asked me to renew my expired permit in order for them to pay me. I am not sure if i shall ask RAV to help me for this or is it late now that i have already submitted a renwal request earlier. any idea anyone, had any one had a similar case?
I have also used his service. Personally, I would not recommend him. He is also not a lawyer just an immigration specialist.
This is due to the fact that I think he realizes how profitable this business is and would only chop the the permit application process into multiple mandates so you have to pay multiple times. He makes you pay for initial analysis and gives you a proposal and if you are not happy with the proposal he will charge you again for a second proposal. This to me is BS. The case should be looked at it all together with suggested outcome especially when the initial proposal isn't great.
I can understand the bit about hiring someone who is not a lawyer. Hopefully his hourly wage isn't on par with a lawyer and he doesn't pretend to be one.
However the second part is a bit puzzling. It sounds as though you expect him to just do hours of work for free on a very complex issue?
Try to think of it from a different perspective - A haircut is a relatively "easy" and straightforward job. Would you also expect your first visit to a hairdresser to be free of charge, and then if you don't like the result, to have them do it again, also for free? And only after the second time AND you like it, you pay something?
I see what you mean about hourly wage but I think whenever you go and hire an immigration specialist you have a very specific problem to solve - mostly that is to get a permit approved.
So I don't see why you would hire someone to only do one part and then pay an equal amount to engage them in the second, third, or fourth part.
You analogy is nice. If you go for a haircut, your objective is to have your whole head cut and not a quarter of it and then have to pay to have the other parts cut.
What exactly is part 1 vs part 2, 3, 4 then? Can you elaborate? Part 1 is the initial analysis - only fair to charge that bit. But what are the other parts?
Following up on this post: Did anyone finally get a lawyer they had good experience working with and can recommend? I am based in Zurich, I do speak German but would prefer an English speaking lawyer for legal matters.
By the way, how did you get in touch with a governmental public lawyer? I have a few simple (hopefully) questions and I need a mere consultation. Thanks!