Your experiences with Paula Carello / Lux Brumalis?

[foobar]

Hi y'all!

I (German) am looking to move in together with my girlfriend (Argentine) around the end of this year. As we don't want to marry yet and I will likely be working as a freelancer, we've consulted Ms Paula Carello to get to know my options for getting a residency permit and eventually citizenship.

Now my problem is this: We've discussed multiple options and eventually chose to go on with applying for the rentista residency. Now she has been unresponsive for over a week. Last friday night she promised to send us the quote for the whole process on saturday but as it was so late and I didn't have time to review it last weekend I told her not to rush and send it to us some time this week. Since then I have not heard from her again except for this: On thursday I asked again when she estimates to be able to send us the quote. There she just replied "hello" at 2 am argentine time and nothing else.
This has happened three times so far. I ask a question, she replies only "hello" late at night and then nothing. Once she apologized and said it was too late (which I totally understand) but still she didn't get back to me the next day until I asked again.

My questions: Has anyone here experienced the same style of communication with her before? Is anyone currently processing their residency or citizenship application with her and if so, how is it going?
I'd totally understand if she's very busy and things take longer because of that, that's fine. But I am worried about the communication already being so scarce before even receiving the quote. When working with a lawyer I need to be able to trust them and for me trust mainly comes from good communication and knowing what's going on at every moment of the process.

Second set of questions: How would you go on in my case? My timeline with moving at the end of this year is already tight so I don't want to wait too long and am considering looking for a different lawyer (btw any suggestions?). On the other hand I've seen lots of positive reviews and recommendations for Ms Carello so I don't want to be impatient and move on too early.

Thanks to everyone providing some input on this!

 

[Silvie]

These are my 2 cents: I would assume you are contacting each other through whatsapp. If I were you, I would insist in calling her in real time or even better, via email, not through whatsapp messaging.

 

[foobar]

@Silvie Good idea, I have sent her an email again and am hoping to get a response this way. Initially I also contacted her via email but then she said it's faster and easier to reach her via whatsapp, that's why we switched over eventually.

 

[Alby]

My experience with lawyers (and escribanos) here and elsewhere in South America, across migration, employment, taxation, and property matters: they will never give you a lump-sum up-front quote, especially if the process is a multi-year one, like a residency "whole process" (although I have had them give me upfront verbal quotes for discrete parts of the process, later always honored in full, with no undisclosed add-ons). Weird, repeated, seemingly unprofessional emails are also not uncommon. The culture here is much more oral, and people are simply not accustomed, in many cases, to doing business in the way we might think is normal. I wouldn't rule someone out on the basis of the information you've presented. If the consensus is she is good and gets results, pay attention to that, rather than to style.

 

[foobar]

Little update: I sent her an email and she responded the same evening and sent me the quote^^ Apparently she was busy with some unexpected problems from other clients and she apologized for not getting back to me earlier. Now I have a quote which is mostly fine except some details and the fact that she promised a "detailed listing of a detailed list with all the steps and their cost" but sent me the same rough range for the total price that she also mentioned in the first consultation. So technically no news haha but from what @Alby says this seems to be normal and I still trust her abilities based on all the positive reviews I've read.

In the meantime I also made another appointment with a different lawyer just to get a second offer and then decide.

 

[FallenAngel]

Out of curiosity who is the second lawyer you are contacting?

 

[Buenas Ondas]

Hi y'all!

I (German) am looking to move in together with my girlfriend (Argentine) around the end of this year. As we don't want to marry yet and I will likely be working as a freelancer, we've consulted Ms Paula Carello to get to know my options for getting a residency permit and eventually citizenship.

Now my problem is this: We've discussed multiple options and eventually chose to go on with applying for the rentista residency. Now she has been unresponsive for over a week. Last friday night she promised to send us the quote for the whole process on saturday but as it was so late and I didn't have time to review it last weekend I told her not to rush and send it to us some time this week. Since then I have not heard from her again except for this: On thursday I asked again when she estimates to be able to send us the quote. There she just replied "hello" at 2 am argentine time and nothing else.
This has happened three times so far. I ask a question, she replies only "hello" late at night and then nothing. Once she apologized and said it was too late (which I totally understand) but still she didn't get back to me the next day until I asked again.

My questions: Has anyone here experienced the same style of communication with her before? Is anyone currently processing their residency or citizenship application with her and if so, how is it going?
I'd totally understand if she's very busy and things take longer because of that, that's fine. But I am worried about the communication already being so scarce before even receiving the quote. When working with a lawyer I need to be able to trust them and for me trust mainly comes from good communication and knowing what's going on at every moment of the process.

Second set of questions: How would you go on in my case? My timeline with moving at the end of this year is already tight so I don't want to wait too long and am considering looking for a different lawyer (btw any suggestions?). On the other hand I've seen lots of positive reviews and recommendations for Ms Carello so I don't want to be impatient and move on too early.

Thanks to everyone providing some input on this!

I worked with her for my rentista visa last year (successful) and reserved her help for my upcoming renewal. Wrote about my experiences here: http://baexpats.org/threads/my-experience-getting-the-rentista-visa-in-2025.49766/

I'd say the style of communication you describe is pretty normal when she gets busy (happened to me a few times during my initial application and then someone DMed me with a similar experience to yours). But when you have something urgent/pressing or a deadline, you'll have all of her attention. She stays on top of things but definitely prioritizes the people who need attention ASAP. Since you have a couple mos before even coming here on a tourist visa and a pretty straightforward immigration pathway, you're not an urgent/high-pressure situation.

But, also, everything you try to do in Argentina isn't gonna be as punctual/straightforward as I imagine it is in Germany lol--so some of it might come down to that

 

[foobar]

Out of curiosity who is the second lawyer you are contacting?

I have contacted Mr. Celano: https://www.celano.com.ar I think he's also quite well known in this community and I also got a recommendation for him via PM so I thought I'd give it a try.

Did anybody here have a good experience with any lesser known lawyers?

 

[foobar]

But when you have something urgent/pressing or a deadline, you'll have all of her attention. She stays on top of things but definitely prioritizes the people who need attention ASAP.

This sounds very good and this is actually my main concern. You are totally right, right now I still have a couple months time so it's perfectly fine for me if she prioritizes urgent cases.

But, also, everything you try to do in Argentina isn't gonna be as punctual/straightforward as I imagine it is in Germany lol--so some of it might come down to that

Yeah there's definitely something to that too. That's why I developed the habit of always checking back with my girlfriend on everything and as long as she is relaxed, I know that the situation seems to be normal for Argentina. Only problem is: I think my girlfriend leans towards a more "German" mentality when it comes to punctuality so this only improves the situation a little bit haha.
And finally I have to admit that this gave me a good laugh because nothing in Germany is straightforward and punctuality also goes down the drain more and more haha

 

[Shpongle]

Needs to list her fees clearly on a website or elsewhere. Does not have a fixed fee schedule, therefore prices change from one conversation to another.