Review Time
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
hopkins-solicitors.co.uk
incunit.com
ckcounsellingandtrainingservices.co.uk
kingscourtlaw.com
foskettmarr.co.uk
globaltrademark.co
staploesolicitors.com
personnelchecks.co.uk
sugareandco.co.uk
nps-law.co.uk
