A Lawyer Quoted Me $5,000 Per Person for Romanian Citizenship. I Did It Myself Instead.
When I started my own Romanian citizenship by descent process, I did what most people do first. I asked a lawyer. The quote came back: $5,000 per person, for a family application. And that number didn't include the real costs underneath it. Apostilles, certified translations, shipping, even additional Zoom calls beyond the included allotment. All extra, all on top.
For Poland, I never even got that far. I researched the firms, saw some charging $10,000 per person, others in the $6,000 to $7,000 range across the US, Canada, and Poland itself, and decided to figure it out myself.
So I did. Both countries, start to finish, no lawyer. This post is about what the process actually costs, because that number and the law firm quote are two very different things.
The Quote vs. the Reality
Here's the part nobody explains up front. A law firm's fee buys their time and expertise. It does not cover the underlying costs of the process itself. Translations, apostilles, archive and certificate fees, government filing fees, couriers. Those exist whether you hire a lawyer or not, and you pay them either way. The lawyer's fee sits on top of all of it. My Romanian quote made that explicit: $5,000 was the professional fee, and everything the process actually requires was extra.
In my experience, and across the cases I now work on, those third-party costs typically run somewhere around $500 to $1,500 USD for most cases. Document-heavy cases can run higher. But that's the real cost of the process. The thousands on top are professional fees.
That gap is the whole reason this business exists.
What I Didn't Know Going In
Two things caught me off guard in my own applications, and they catch almost everyone.
First, the translator situation. Most people assume they can use a translator near where they live. It feels logical. It's where you are, it's where most of your documents are. For the Polish application especially, the reality is different, and it's one of the most misunderstood parts of the entire process. The type of translator required, and where that translator needs to be based, depends on the document. Get it wrong and there's a fee waiting for you at the consulate that nobody warned you about. I know because it happened to me. Fixing it costs real money and real time.
Second, the per-applicant math. If you're filing as a family, each adult application is its own application. Its own fees. Its own document requirements, even when the ancestral chain is shared. I went through this alongside my brother and my father, so I've lived the multi-applicant version personally. Families routinely underestimate their total cost because they assume everything can simply be shared across applications. Some of it can. Knowing which parts is where the real savings live, and it's exactly what I map out on a Roadmap Call, because the answer depends on your specific document set.
Romania Adds Its Own Layer
Romania's process has its own cost structure and its own category of surprises. The biggest is the B1 Romanian language requirement introduced in 2025, which I've covered separately on this blog.
One more that almost nobody flags: if you file at a consulate in a city where you don't live, or your documents come from a different country than where you file, the translator certification requirements get more complicated than a purely local case. Most people find this out mid-process, when a document gets flagged. That's the expensive way to learn it.
So What Does It Actually Cost?
The honest answer, in three tiers:
If you do a Roadmap Call and handle everything yourself: third-party costs plus $299 for the call. You leave with a written plan, the exact document list in the right order, and a line-item estimate of your third-party costs before you spend a dollar.
If you want the Guided Process: $1,500 plus third-party costs. I walk you through exactly what to do at every step, in the right order, and check your work before you take it. You execute, including the document gathering, with me making sure nothing gets done twice or done wrong.
If you want it Done For You: $3,250 plus third-party costs. With your authorization, I handle the document gathering across every generation and country, the apostilles, the sworn translator sourcing, the genealogist coordination where archives are involved, and the consulate-ready package. You approve each step, sign what needs signing, and show up to your appointment. Law firm quotes I've personally received for comparable work have run several times this price.
And here's the part a sales page wouldn't tell you. Some cases genuinely need a lawyer. I'm not one, and I don't give legal advice. If your case involves a real legal dispute, a prior denial, or eligibility that's genuinely unclear under the law, a licensed immigration attorney is the right call, and I'll tell you that directly if I see it in your situation. A good consultant tells you when you're outside his lane. That's part of what you're paying for.
Where to Start
The thing most people don't realize until they're deep in it: this process is genuinely navigable without a law firm, but only if you know the specific traps before you hit them. The Roadmap Call is 45 minutes on your specific family situation, the exact documents you need in the right order, and an honest answer on whether your case is standard or lawyer territory. It's $299, and it typically saves people multiples of that in mistakes they never make. If you're not sure you're eligible at all, the quiz on this site is the faster place to start, and it'll tell you whether a Roadmap Call even makes sense yet.
Take the 2-minute eligibility quiz