Maaldrink Vermeulen Advocaten

I do not recommend their immigration service as a person that has moved and travelled a lot, and I’ve held 2 Dutch Visas in the past + 1 extension. Why I do recommend this lawyer? 1. We felt belittled and mocked over when we asked objective questions and the lawyer couldn’t answer and didn’t provide information that was not already in the IND website. Besides that, I felt like he wouldn’t be able to help us in case there was any issue. We had to pay half of the entire service. (390 euros), for just 1 meeting. We couldn’t get a partial refund because this first meeting and its information was “the main part of intelligence and expertise I need to give”. We left the meeting with the same amount of questions we started it with. 2. We were told that he has experience working in IND but based on his responses, I assume that working in IND analyzing cases is very different of being a lawyer for someone and helping them BUILD their case. 3. We felt a condescending attitude regarding ANY questions and a lack of willingness to understand the concern. I’ve hired immigration lawyers before, if YOUR CLIENT has an issue that you are bing hired to solve, you should at least act willing to understand what this issue is and how to solve it. This is very important in immigration law as every client has a different trajectory. Examples of said attitudes: 4. When we asked if we needed both a physical and digital copy of the documents, he laughed and he acted as if it was a senseless question since it was an online application. BUT, when I applied to my student visa, my Dutch university did inform us to have physical copies in case IND request to see them as proof. Furthermore, different countries have different procedures, we were expecting a professional answer on how things were done in the NL. Furthermore, he went on a tangent on how “young people think smart phones are smart while they (the phones) aren’t”. He could have simply requested us to scan with a printer and the comment was specially distasteful as we are clearly young and working in IT. On the other hand, I doubt it would be appropriate in a professional setting to comment to an older person about how annoying it is that old people struggle with technology. (Not our opinion, it is just an example of how the reverse wouldn’t be seen as acceptable) 5. When we asked if we could pay an extra fee to the IND so the process is faster, he laughed and acted as if it was a crazy idea and in his own word compare this idea to a bribe. IN REALITY, it is possible for certain docs in the NL, such as renewing your drivers license. It is a very standard official procedure. There was no need to instantly dismiss the questions and compare it bribing. When we tried to explain that this exists in the NL when renewing the Drivers License and for instance needing urgency, he didn’t show willingness to listen 6. Considering that foreign documents need to be “internationally legalized”, we asked him if we needed to do it with the “The Hague Apostille Convention” (international standard) and he again acted as if we were making a nonsensical question and said that I just need to legalized it and didn’twant to discuss this further. Later I entered in the website of IND, and I do need to do it according to the “The Hague Apostille Convention”. 7. Considering that I am changing to a partner visa, we have to prove a long-lasting relationship, he couldn’t answer our questions regarding how many photos we needed, or what type of documents can prove it. He said that this is not his paper as lawyer. I think wanting to know more about what can be send as prove (rental contract, videos, letters, photos, flight tickets…) is very reasonable. 8. He couldn’t properly explain us exactly what we needed to provide as proof of income, just a general "3 slips of payment". A letter from the company of my Dutch partner? Income tax? We don't know