Government filing fees follow the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055, and depend on the forms filed and the employer's size, with faster processing available at additional cost. Add the internal cost of assembling payroll, corporate and organizational evidence for two entities and any professional fees for preparing the petition.
Weigh faster processing against a complete file
Where a qualifying year is in question, paying to accelerate a decision buys an earlier request for evidence rather than an earlier approval. Spend first on getting the employment dates, ownership documents and organizational evidence right, and consider expedited handling only once the file is sound and a real deadline exists. Budget the bookkeeping time to produce payroll histories and the accounting work to show both entities are trading. Confirm current fees when filing rather than relying on figures from a previous petition, since amounts are revised. If the qualifying year is not yet complete, the cheapest option available is usually to wait for it and file once, rather than to file early and pay again.
Hypothetical example: a Tyendinaga biometric-security firm sends a director to launch an American business unit and budgets only the government petition fee. A useful cost review separates filing charges from legal review, document retrieval, translations where needed, travel, housing, payroll setup, and the new office's actual operating expenses. Decide which company pays each item and keep invoices separate from personal relocation spending, since the business plan must remain financially credible. That allocation also helps distinguish a genuine operating launch from a relocation plan with no support for the projected management structure.