I have recently been looking into a Portuguese Golden Visa consultancy called The Golden Portugal. According to information publicly available on its website, the operating entity behind The Golden Portugal is a company called Star Lua, Unipessoal Lda.

I carried out some due diligence on this company before considering its services. According to Portuguese corporate information from Racius, Star Lua, Unipessoal Limitada was incorporated in May 2023, has a registered share capital of just €500, and its reported number of employees was only 1 in both 2023 and 2024.

What I find difficult to understand is the marketing claim of having served around 800 families. The company’s website has also stated that approximately 90% of its clients are Golden Visa clients. If these figures are taken at face value, that would mean roughly 720 Golden Visa families in about three years — around 240 per year, or close to one new Golden Visa family every working day.

For a company reporting only one employee, this is an extraordinarily high volume and, in my view, very difficult to reconcile with the level of ongoing work normally required for Golden Visa cases. These applications involve long-term case management, document collection, banking and investment coordination, legal work, AIMA procedures, biometrics and follow-up over several years.

Golden Visa is also a relatively limited market, not a mass-market immigration product with unlimited annual demand. A company consistently signing even one new Golden Visa family every week would already represent a substantial volume of business. Claiming a pace close to one new Golden Visa family every working day therefore deserves a clear explanation.

I am not stating that the “800 families” figure is false. However, prospective clients should ask exactly what this number represents: direct paying clients of this company, cases attributed to external lawyers or partners, previous experience of team members, enquiries, or some broader cumulative figure.

For anyone investing €500,000 through the Golden Visa program, I would strongly recommend verifying the company’s actual internal team size and asking who will personally manage the case over the coming years before signing.

If I were choosing a company to handle a Portugal Golden Visa today, I would pay far less attention to marketing claims and far more attention to things that I can physically see and independently verify.

One of the first things I would not rely on is a company's website saying:

“We have handled 500 families.”

“We have served 1,000 investors.”

“We are one of Portugal's leading Golden Visa firms.”

Maybe those claims are true. Maybe they are not.

The problem is that immigration client files are confidential. A legitimate company cannot simply publish hundreds of investors' passports, bank statements, AIMA applications or residence permits online to prove how many clients it has handled.

So as a potential client, there is usually no realistic way for me to verify a headline such as “800 families served” simply by looking at the company's website.

The same applies to Google reviews.

Reviews can certainly be useful, but a five-star Google review is not an independently verified Golden Visa case. Google does not check whether the reviewer actually invested €500,000, whether that person really obtained a residence permit, or even whether the reviewer was a genuine client of that company.

For a restaurant, Google reviews might be enough for me.

For a €500,000 investment immigration decision, they are definitely not.

I would visit the company in person

This has become one of my most important rules.

There are now many immigration businesses in Portugal with very impressive websites and social-media accounts, but the physical operation behind the website can sometimes be extremely small.

Some companies may consist of only a few people, operate from serviced or shared offices, and outsource the legal work to a solo lawyer or a very small law office.

There is nothing inherently wrong with being a small company or renting an office.

But Golden Visa cases are very different from ordinary visa applications.

The relationship may last for many years.

You may need assistance with banking, investment compliance, AIMA applications, biometrics, renewals, family applications, permanent residence and eventually citizenship.

You are also dealing with substantial amounts of money and extremely sensitive personal and financial information.

For that reason, operational continuity matters to me.

A recent case shows why this matters

In July 2026, Portuguese media reported that the Polícia Judiciária arrested a 58-year-old lawyer in Odivelas in connection with Golden Visa clients.

Investigators identified at least 33 victims, and authorities estimated that approximately €1.2 million had allegedly been diverted from foreign clients' bank accounts.

According to Portuguese media reports, the lawyer had obtained access to clients' bank accounts in connection with their Golden Visa procedures and allegedly transferred funds to personal accounts. One Portuguese report stated that the money was ultimately spent on online gambling.

This is an extreme case, of course, and it does not mean small law firms are automatically unsafe.

But it demonstrates something important:

When you are trusting someone with an investment immigration process, you should investigate the actual organisation behind the website.

What I would check during an office visit

I would physically visit the immigration company's office before signing anything.

I would look around.

How many people actually work there?

Is there a real case-management team?

Are there separate people responsible for investment, banking, immigration procedures and client follow-up?

Or is almost everything dependent on one person?

I would also ask to meet or identify the lawyers who will actually be responsible for my immigration application.

And I would pay attention to the office itself.

Is this an established office used by the company every day?

Is it a serviced office?

Is it a coworking space?

Is it simply a registered address?

Or does the company actually own the premises?

An owned office would be a significant plus for me

This is something I have started paying much more attention to.

If an immigration company has actually purchased its own commercial office in Portugal, I consider that a very strong positive signal.

It obviously does not guarantee that the company is good.

But buying commercial property requires substantially more capital and long-term commitment than renting a desk or changing serviced offices every year.

A rented office can relatively easily be changed or surrendered.

A company that has invested significant capital into purchasing its own office is, in my opinion, demonstrating a much more tangible commitment to maintaining a long-term operation in Portugal.

And importantly, this is something that can actually be verified.

I would now even ask:

“Do you own this office? Can I see the property registration?”

In Portugal, property ownership can be checked through official property-registration records.

That is the type of evidence I like because it does not depend on testimonials, marketing copy or social-media followers.

Either the company owns the property or it does not.

My basic rule

If I were putting €500,000 into a Golden Visa investment, I would spend at least a few hours investigating the organisation that will potentially represent me for the next five, seven or even ten years.

I would verify:

• the physical office;
• approximate team size;
• who manages my case;
• which lawyers actually handle the immigration work;
• whether those lawyers work alone or as part of a substantial immigration team;
• how client funds are handled;
• whether lawyers have authority over my bank account;
• whether the company has professional indemnity insurance;
• company registration and financial history;
• whether the office is rented, shared or company-owned;
• and, if they claim to own the office, the official property registration.

A beautiful website can be created very quickly.

Hundreds of reviews can look impressive.

Social-media followers can create credibility.

But none of those things would be enough for me when making a €500,000 immigration investment.

For something this important, I want to see the people, see the office and verify the things that cannot easily be manufactured for marketing.

If you are considering using an immigration agency for the Portugal Golden Visa, there is one thing I believe is particularly important:

Do not automatically trust the numbers an agency publishes about itself.

Many companies advertise that they have “served hundreds or thousands of families,” have a huge number of successful cases, or are “industry leaders.” The problem is that these numbers are often very difficult for a potential client to independently verify.

For example, I came across a Lisbon-based immigration agency that appears to have been established around 2022, yet claims to have already served 800 families.

For a relatively young company, a number like this should at least raise questions unless there is some credible and verifiable basis behind it.

Whenever an agency advertises an unusually large number of clients, a simple question should be asked:

Where does this number come from, and is there anything that independently supports it?

Of course, immigration services have an important confidentiality issue. Genuine client information is private. A professional agency cannot simply show prospective clients hundreds of passports, residence applications, or client files.

That is exactly why I think potential clients should pay more attention to things that can actually be verified in person.

Whenever possible, visit the company before signing a contract.

Look at the actual size of the office. See how many people genuinely work there. Find out whether it is a permanent independent office, a property owned by the company, a rented office, or simply a desk inside a coworking/shared office.

None of these factors alone can guarantee professional service, but they are at least tangible facts that a prospective client can personally verify.

I would also be very cautious about relying heavily on Google Maps reviews when choosing an immigration company.

Google reviews are not the same as verified client records. In immigration, investment, legal services and many other high-value industries, purchased reviews, coordinated reviews and other forms of artificial rating manipulation do exist.

Therefore, having dozens or even hundreds of five-star reviews does not automatically prove that a company has handled the same number of genuine immigration cases.

When evaluating a Portugal Golden Visa agency, I would pay much more attention to:

• How long the company has actually existed;
• Whether it has a genuine and permanent physical office;
• Whether the size of its team and office is consistent with the number of clients it claims to serve;
• Who actually handles the legal and immigration work;
• Whether you can meet the lawyers and service team;
• Whether major marketing claims can be supported by independent information;
• Whether the fees, contractual obligations and responsibilities are clearly explained.

Immigration can be a 5-year, 10-year or even longer relationship with a service provider.

A beautiful website, hundreds of five-star reviews and impressive “success numbers” are relatively easy to create.

A real operational team, long-term presence, substantial office infrastructure and genuine service capability are much harder to fake.

So my advice is simple:

Don’t rely only on marketing. Don’t rely only on Google ratings. If possible, visit the company and verify things yourself before making a decision.