BRIDGES expert
Head of European Practice, BRIDGES
I head the BRIDGES European practice: Italy, Portugal, Greece, Austria and our partners in each country. I look at a client’s matter years ahead: not only residence, but the family’s taxes and the road to an EU passport. Twenty years in European law, in Sergey Evdokimov’s team since 2014.
Path
Kraków, Brussels, Budapest. First EU law and residence rules, then a private bank, now the BRIDGES European practice and partners in each country.
Born in Kraków. Her grandmother taught Russian, and from childhood the house had two libraries, Polish and Russian.
Faculty of law, specialising in European Union law. Thesis on free movement and the residence rights of third-country nationals.
Six years in EU law consulting: residence rules, moving companies and families between member states. She learned to see how one country’s rule echoes in another.
The international clients desk of a private bank: families from Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine moving to Europe. Every day she saw how residence, the bank and taxes are tied into one whole.
Joined Sergey’s team in Budapest. Built the partner network: lawyers, notaries and tax advisers in Italy, Portugal, Greece and Austria.
The first families on the Portuguese and Greek Golden Visas. She travelled to each country herself: meetings with lawyers, banks and developers, to know whom a client’s matter can be trusted to.
Launched the Italian practice: investor residence, startups and the flat tax for wealthy families. The first clients received the status without a single exam or relocation.
Years of reform: Portugal closed the property route and SEF was replaced by AIMA. She moved clients to funds and learned to speed up stalled matters through the courts.
Head of the BRIDGES European practice. Matters where European residence has to be tied to the family’s taxes and the road to EU citizenship go through Irena. Her first clients from 2015 are now receiving passports.
Approach to cases
Six rules Irena applies to European matters.
If the client needs an EU passport, we count the whole road at once: timelines, days of residence, language, programme conditions.
One spouse’s preferential regime does not always extend to the other. We decide for the whole family before the move.
In each country we have a vetted lawyer and notary. The client gets local practice, not a translation of the law.
Five years to citizenship are five years of conditions. We remind about every step so the years are not reset.
With a Turkish, Israeli or Caribbean passport many doors open directly. First we look at what the client already has.
We compare Italy, Portugal and Greece for the family’s goal, not out of habit.
Talks and media
Irena speaks at conferences on citizenship and residence in Europe. You can book a meeting in advance.
Upcoming conferences
Irena online
Beyond work
At BRIDGES I am responsible for Europe: EU programmes and partners in each country. I love long matters, where today we arrange residence and five years later the client sends a photo of their new passport.
I am from Kraków and have lived in Budapest for twelve years with my Austrian husband and two sons. We speak three languages at home, and on Saturdays we have a Polish breakfast from my grandmother’s recipes.
In winter we ski in Tyrol, in summer we hike in the mountains. I love opera, go to the Budapest Opera House for standing places like a student, and still collect books for two libraries, Polish and Russian.
What I love most at work is the first meeting with a family. Parents come with a question about residence, and an hour later we are talking about a university for their daughter, taxes ten years from now and where the grandmothers will live. That conversation is why I came into this profession.
I start the morning with coffee in an old café near home and a Polish newspaper. That is where I read partners’ letters from Rome and Lisbon while the city is still waking up.
Situations
These are the questions clients most often bring to Irena.
Case stories
Portugal · citizenship
Kamila did not need residence as such but an EU passport: that is why she entered the Portuguese programme. The point was not to lose a single year on the way.
We laid out the road at once: five years of legal residence, the programme conditions for the whole period and a Portuguese exam at A2 level. I keep the renewal calendar and remind her of every step.
Outcome: The road to Portuguese citizenship set: 5 years and A2
Italy · tax
The client lived in Italy under the flat tax regime and was happy with it. But his wife paid tax at the ordinary scale on her worldwide income.
We added her to her husband’s regime: for 25,000 euros a year her worldwide income is also taxed at the flat rate. The calculation showed the extra payment pays off in the first year.
Outcome: The wife added to the flat tax regime
Greece · residence
Arsen obtained a Turkish passport with us and then wanted Greek residence too. He came back to us because we knew his whole story.
With a Turkish passport the Greek Golden Visa is filed directly, without restrictions. Our partners in Athens handled the deal and opened the accounts, and I put together the couple’s file.
Outcome: Greek residence for the couple directly
Portugal · residence
Vladimir came to us when his Portuguese Golden Visa had been stuck for over a year: SEF was dissolved, its functions moved to AIMA, and local lawyers only shrugged.
Waiting longer made no sense. Our partners in Lisbon filed a claim for inaction with the administrative court, and I gathered evidence of every deadline the authority had missed. The court ordered the case to be decided within 30 days.
Outcome: Biometrics 30 days after the court claim
Reviews
Client reviews from matters Irena ran: who the client is, where they are from, which programme - and a link to the full case.
DavidEntrepreneurThe first business plan failed the assessment. Irena reworked it to the innovation criteria, and the application passed. Italian residence granted.
Read the caseVladimirBRIDGES clientMy case had been stuck for 14 months. Through partners Irena filed a claim with the administrative court, and 30 days later I had my biometrics.
Read the caseArsenentrepreneurI got my Turkish passport with BRIDGES and then wanted Greek residence too. Irena explained that I could apply directly with it, her partners in Athens handled the deal, and everything went quickly.
Read the caseMaterials
BRIDGES knowledge base materials signed by Irena: EU residence, the road to citizenship, Italian and Portuguese tax regimes.
BRIDGES sections
Team
A matter is never run by one person: the legal position, the filing, the documents and the work on the ground each have a named owner.
INITIAL ASSESSMENT
We will design a solution for your case, choose the country and the right status, and take the whole process through to the result.
