General Terms & Conditions

1. Application, applicable law, legal venue and place of trial

1.1. The ERVICo General terms and conditions are an integral part of any agreement between ERVICo and a third party, whether in written or any other form. Deviating terms and conditions of a contractual partner are only valid in the case they are explicitly agreed in written form. The absence of such an agreement automatically leads to the validity of the General Terms and Conditions noted here under.

1.2. Legal disputes from these general terms and conditions as well as from contracts, for which these general terms and conditions are applicable (including disputes about the validity of these general terms and conditions and the validity of the contracts, for which these general terms and conditions are applicable) are subject to Austrian law.

Legal venue and place of trial shall be Vienna.

2. Prices

2.1. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, prices are to be considered as net prices (excluding value added tax), invoiced in EUR.

2.2. Price quotations of ERVICo are exclusively bound to services of ERVICo only and are not including any other migration costs (e.g. of third parties or authorities), even if those costs are inevitable for achieving the targeted migration goal. Unless stated otherwise, third party costs, incurred by ERVICo, shall be reimbursed upon presentation of the respective receipt. Alternatively ERVICo reserves the right of charging advance payments for already planned upcoming expenses and submit the receipts after realizing those expenses.

2.3. The provision of services by ERVICo, that is not explicitly mentioned in the quotation, but nevertheless indispensable for achieving an agreed goal, requires a separate agreement. In case of doubt, or if not explicitly stated otherwise, hourly billing is agreed for such services. In 2021 an hourly rate of EUR 150,- net is valid for ERVICo’s services (the amount may change according to the development of the consumer price index 2020 – refer to 2.4.).

2.4. In the case of unlimited contractual relationships or contract periods exceeding one year ERVICo reserves the right of price adjustments, if the consumer price index 2020 (published by “Statistik Austria”) increased by more than 5% between the time of contract conclusion and service delivery. The hourly rate mentioned under 2.3. changes to the same extent of the change of the consumer price index in comparison to the one of 2020. Most relevant is the respective value in the month of the service provision.

3. Payment conditions

3.1. ERVICo is charging a pre-application fee of 50% of the invoice amount, payable after clarification of the service request, mutual agreement on a suitable service package and conclusion of the contract. For invoice amounts exceeding EUR 5.000,- the pre-application fee is reduced to 40%, the resulting absolute amount of EUR 2.000,- being valid as pre-application fee also for invoice amounts between EUR 4.000,- and 5.000,-. The remaining invoice amount is due after completion of the agreed services. Payment term shall be 2 weeks net, respectively.

3.2. Accepted form of payment is bank transfer only.

3.3. The pre-application fee is non refundable and is a charge for services, not a guarantee of a successful application. The full invoice amount shall only be due in the case of success, provided a possible failure is not attributed to an avoidable error on the part of the customer (also refer to 5.3./5.4. under these terms). In the case of failure ERVICo will only charge already provided services on an hourly basis (hourly rate EUR 150,- net – the amount may change according to the development of the consumer price index 2020 – refer to 2.4.) – up to a maximum amount of 60% of the remaining invoice amount.

3.4. In the case of payment delays ERVICo reserves the right of charging interests for late payment in the amount of 12% p.a. as well as all other emerging fees, costs or expenses, especially costs of debt collection, costs of the reminder (EUR 20,- net per reminder) and litigation costs (including lawyer’s fees). All prices are considered net, excluding 20% VAT.

3.5. In the case of proven insolvency of a contractual partner, payments for services already provided but not yet due, shall become due immediately after a following request for payment, non-payment entitling ERVICo to withdrawal from the contract. Even in case of due payment ERVICo is nevertheless entitled to provide the remaining services according to the contract only against payment in advance.

4. Customer’s obligations

The customer undertakes to fulfill the following obligations:

• Providing all necessary information and documentation such as photocopies of ID documents, completed forms, original documents when necessary and any other documents which are requested in the course of the migration procedure, in a timely manner
• Advising ERVICo in any case of updates to the situation (including changes in address, name, company name, legal form, shareholders, registration number etc.) or leaving the home country or Austria for an extended period of time as long as unlimited residence is not yet granted
• Advising ERVICo of any correspondence received directly from the government or other authorities (with regard to the migration matter), in a timely manner
• Being honest and forthright about information given to ERVICo
• Assuming responsibility and liability that all information on government forms is true and complete. ERVICo does not take over any liability for errors, omissions, incomplete or illegible information on application forms
• When required, forms must have a notary confirmation stamp by an authorized notary to be processed

In the case of violating against one of the mentioned contractual obligations, ERVICo is entitled to make payments due immediately for already provided services (hourly rate EUR 150,-) or to withdraw from the contractual agreement (also refer to 5.3./5.4. under these terms).

5. Alteration of contracts

5.1. Alterations of contracts are valid only in written form.

5.2. If the customer cancels, stops or interrupts services, ERVICo is entitled to keep the full pre-application fee. On top of that ERVICo is entitled to charge already provided, additional services at a rate of EUR 150,- net per hour plus 20% surcharge fee for alteration, plus third party expenditures according to receipt, if not agreed otherwise.

5.3. If the customer fails – after expiry of a reasonable grace period, set by ERVICo – to provide necessary information, documents or any other forms needed for a successful procedure, ERVICo is entitled to charge all provided services at a rate of EUR 150,- net per hour plus 20% surcharge fee, plus third party expenditures according to receipt, due upon receipt of the invoice (on top of an already paid pre-application fee). In addition such misconduct of the customer entitles ERVICo to withdraw from the contractual agreement, this way releasing ERVICo from any obligation to provide further services. In case of doubt the expiry of 6 months without any information or instruction from the side of the customer shall be treated as misconduct.

5.4. If the customer intentionally provides false information or forged documents, ERVICo is entitled to immediately terminate the contract and make the full remaining invoice amount due at once. In spite of that ERVICo shall be released from any obligation to provide further services for the customer.

6. Involved Third Parties

Whenever ERVICo provides services by acting on behalf of a customer in cooperation with third parties (like real estate brokers, freight forwarders, suppliers for energy, telephone, TV, Internet as well as lawyers, banks and insurances or any other third party), ERVICo will not enter into a contractual relationship with third parties. Necessary contracts have to be closed by the contractual partner and the third party. Specifically, ERVICo does not take over any liability for the condition of goods or services provided by third parties, unless otherwise agreed.

7. Liability

ERVICo’s liability for slight negligence is explicitly excluded. Generally the liability is limited to a maximum amount of the agreed fee for the contractual services. As long as there are no shorter limitation periods or pre-exclusive periods effected, claims against ERVICo expire within 6 months after knowledge of the damage caused by ERVICo, if the contractual partner is entrepreneur within the meaning of the KSchG, and within one year after knowledge of the damage caused by ERVICo, if the contractual partner is no such entrepreneur. At the longest such claims are expiring 5 years after the behavior causing the damage (respectively the violation giving rise to the claim). In particular ERVICo is not responsible for the following circumstances:

• Documents lost by post or courier companies or any other service of third parties
• Applications rejected by the governmental authority (if not based at least on gross negligence from the side of ERVICo)
• Force Majeure

In general, due to the decision-making authority of the immigration authorities only, ERVICo cannot give any success guarantee for whatsoever migration plan.

8. Severability Clause

The invalidity of single passages of these General Terms and Conditions does not affect the validity of other passages within this document. The parties are rather called upon to amend the invalid passages, thus creating an alternative passage that closely corresponds to the original intention.

9. Confidentiality

The contractual parties are obliged to keep all contractual contents (and any other related documents, forms or agreements) as confidential, unless it is necessary to disclose such information (e.g. before authorities) due to the services provided.

10. Final Provisions

Renewals of the General Terms and Conditions are required to be in written form.

The English version of the General Terms and Conditions corresponds to the German version at the best of our knowledge and belief and shall provide the same information for English speaking customers. However, in case of doubt, and for the official legal assessment of business cases only the German version of the General terms and conditions is valid.