The direct answer
There are four honest options, and one of them is free.
If you already know the country, the city, the residence route and the tax consequences, and you have the professional relationships to execute, then the right answer is to hire an immigration lawyer, hire a cross-border tax advisor, and go. That path is cheaper, faster, and entirely legitimate. Nobody in this industry will tell you that, so we will.
The case for coordinated help begins only when the decisions are still open, when the decisions interact, and when getting one of them wrong is expensive. Choosing Portugal and then discovering the tax regime you assumed no longer exists. Buying in Spain and then discovering the visa you chose forecloses the tax regime that would have saved you six figures. Arriving in January when arriving in July would have moved a business sale out of European reach. These are not execution failures. They are sequencing failures, and no individual specialist is hired to prevent them.
The comparison
What each provider actually does.
| Option | What it does well | What it does not do | How it is paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Costs nothing but time, and works when the decision is genuinely simple and the amounts are modest | Nobody catches the interaction between the visa, the tax regime and the purchase until it has happened | Your own hours, and the cost of anything you miss |
| Immigration lawyer | The residence file, the legal route, the application and the appeal. Indispensable, and licensed | Rarely asks whether the country is right, and is not engaged to model the tax or property consequences | Fee for the application, by route |
| Relocation agency | Logistics: schools, shipping, registration, utilities, the arrival week | Does not own the strategy, and is generally engaged after the country is already chosen | Fee for the move, and paid when the move happens |
| Buyer's agent | Finding and negotiating the property, and local market knowledge | Is not the person to ask whether you should be buying at all, or in that country, or in that year | Usually a commission on the purchase |
| Cross-border CPA | The single highest-value specialist in the chain. Models the US and local position with authority | Prices the plan you bring. Does not source it, does not choose your country, does not run the property or residence file | Professional fees, hourly or fixed |
| Private office | Owns the decision, the sequence and the coordination of the licensed specialists across all of it | Does not replace regulated advice. The lawyer and the CPA are still the lawyer and the CPA | A flat fee for the decision file, then a mandate for execution |
Follow the incentives
Ask who gets paid if you make the wrong choice.
This is the most useful question you can ask any adviser in this market, including us. A buyer's agent is paid when you buy, and paid more when you pay more. A relocation agency is paid when the move happens. A firm bundling visas and property is paid twice for the same decision. None of that makes them dishonest. It does mean that nobody in that chain is paid to tell you the answer is no.
- Ask whether the fee changes with the outcome. If it does, the recommendation is not neutral, and you should read it accordingly.
- Ask who is licensed and for what. Coordination is not regulated advice. Tax, legal and immigration work must be done by people licensed to do it, and you should be told exactly who they are.
- Ask for the decisions, not the deliverables. A hundred-page report that recommends nothing is not a plan. Ask what it will actually tell you to do, and by when.
- Ask what happens if the answer is that you should not go. If the model cannot produce that answer, it is not a model.
What good looks like
Five things a serious engagement produces.
01
One accountable person
Not a platform, not a rotating account manager. One named individual who is responsible when a decision falls between two specialists.
02
A dated file
Decisions with dates on them: country, city, route, budget, arrival window and what has to happen first.
03
Named specialists
The actual licensed tax, legal and immigration professionals who will do the regulated work, identified before you commit.
04
Written risks
The things that could go wrong, stated plainly. An engagement that surfaces no risks has not looked for any.
05
Portable work
A plan you could hand to someone else and have them execute. If the work only makes sense inside the relationship, it is not work.
06
A real sequence
Tax before visa, visa before purchase, purchase before shipping. Any order that puts the house first is selling you the house.
How this office works
A flat fee, a dated decision file, and a refund if it fails.
The European Home Blueprint is USD7,500 and takes three weeks. It produces a dated decision file covering country and city fit, the residence route, property strategy, the map of licensed specialists, risks, budget, timeline and the next steps. It is a fixed fee, and it is not contingent on you buying anything, moving anywhere, or engaging us again.
If you then want the plan executed, a concierge mandate generally starts at USD30,000, and the full Blueprint fee is credited against it. If the Blueprint does not give you clarity on country, budget, tax route and timeline, we refund the fee and you keep the work. That guarantee exists because the alternative, being paid regardless of whether the decision improved, is exactly the incentive problem described above.
Regulated work is done by licensed professionals. This office coordinates the European file and the specialists who execute it. It does not replace your attorney, your CPA or your financial adviser, and where you already have them, they stay. See what the engagement covers and how we work alongside US advisors.
Plain answers
Questions Americans ask before they hire anyone.
Do I need an immigration lawyer to move to Europe?
For the residence application itself, a licensed immigration lawyer in the destination country is usually the right professional and often a necessary one. What a lawyer is not engaged to do is tell you whether the country, the route, the timing or the purchase makes sense for your household. That is a separate question, and it should be answered first.
What is the difference between a relocation agency and a private office?
A relocation agency executes the move after the decisions have been made: shipping, schools, registration and the arrival week. A private office owns the decisions themselves, the sequence they have to happen in, and the coordination of the licensed tax, legal and property specialists across the whole file. They solve different problems, and a household with an open decision does not yet need logistics.
How much does it cost to get help moving to Europe?
It varies with what you are buying. An immigration lawyer charges a fee for the residence application. A buyer's agent typically takes a commission on the purchase. The European Home Blueprint is a flat USD7,500 for a three-week dated decision file, and a concierge execution mandate generally starts at USD30,000 with the Blueprint fee credited if you proceed.
Can I just move to Europe on my own?
Often, yes. If the country and city are settled, the residence route is straightforward, the amounts are modest and no liquidity event or complex balance sheet is involved, hiring a good local immigration lawyer and a cross-border tax advisor is enough. Coordinated help earns its fee when the decisions are still open, when they interact, and when getting the sequence wrong is expensive.
What questions should I ask before hiring anyone for a European move?
Ask whether the fee changes depending on what you decide, because that tells you how neutral the recommendation is. Ask who is licensed to do the regulated tax, legal and immigration work, and to name them. Ask what decisions the engagement will actually produce, with dates. And ask what happens if the honest answer is that you should not go.