Client story
Client's Background
Where they started
Oleg came to Malta Permanent Residence with a fundamentally clean history: an active business, transparent income, nothing criminal. He entrusted case preparation to an agency that, as it turned out, did not deserve that trust.
Why the standard route did not work
Eight years prior, Oleg had a small company, long since liquidated, with a minor arbitration dispute in its history—an ordinary business episode, of which any entrepreneur has dozens. This should have been disclosed in the PR application forms. However, the agency negligently simply failed to include this episode—possibly considering it insignificant or perhaps failing to conduct proper verification at all.
What BRIDGES had to solve
The problem was that RMA checks applicants against its own databases—and easily found what was missing from the application. Here a key Due Diligence principle applied: the danger lies not in the old dispute itself but in the discrepancy between the application and reality. A discrepancy is read as an attempt to conceal—and this is far more serious than the fact itself.
Why a standard answer would not do
RMA issued a notice of intent to refuse. A refusal on such grounds would effectively constitute a Schengen blacklist. He had 21 days to challenge it. Oleg contacted BRIDGES, realizing that he was being penalized not for the old company but for "concealment" that he himself did not commit.
The most frustrating part is that I didn't hide anything—the agent simply failed to list a company of mine from eight years ago. Yet it appeared as if I had concealed it. And because of this, I faced a Schengen blacklist. Sergey and his team did not argue but voluntarily disclosed everything through an Affidavit and explained that this was the agent's error. They saved the case.
