The petition fees are published and predictable. The costs that surprise companies are the U.S. entity’s own setup, premises, local payroll and the professional time spent reconstructing corporate records that were never tidy.
Budget the evidence, not only the filing
Check current government amounts against the published USCIS fee schedule rather than a figure from a previous transfer, since they change. The larger figures usually sit elsewhere. A new U.S. entity needs incorporation, a registered agent, a bank account, insurance and premises, and a new-office petition is assessed partly on whether the premises and the plan can support the role. Corporate records are the other cost. Small manufacturers often have accurate accounts and informal ownership paperwork, and reconstructing a clean chain of ownership for the file takes accounting and legal time. Budget for a corrected record rather than for an argument, because an argument that rests on incomplete ownership evidence tends to return as a request for more evidence.
Hypothetical example: a bicycle-component manufacturer budgets filing fees but overlooks the cost of documenting its new U.S. operation. Separate the government charges from commercial expenses that make the assignment credible: premises, payroll, corporate records, translations and a realistic staffing plan. A first review should identify which expense is a business need regardless of immigration and which is only a document-preparation cost. That distinction helps management decide whether to invest in the operation before a petition is filed. Do not count an unsupported projection as a low-cost substitute for actual business records; it generally creates more response work later.