Yeah the fees are no joke. Moving here 10 years ago the fees came to around €5k the first year and there were additional exorbitant fees at the 2.5 year and 5 year mark. I can only assume the rates are higher now.
Another fun fact about the process is that the forms they ask you to fill out are intentionally hard to understand and surrounded by warnings that your application will be auto-rejected if even one field is wrong. They then direct you to a list of private companies that claim to fill out the application for you, to avoid such a negative outcome.
Everyone comes away from this process with the understanding that it’s a scam designed to enrich some a bunch of companies.
FishFace@piefed.social 19 minutes ago
For these kind of visa routes, migration is an investment.