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APPLICATION ANSWERS · L-1A FIELD GUIDE

What cost categories belong in an L-1A budget?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Separate government filing fees from legal and document-preparation services, from any company costs of setting up a new office, and from family-related applications. These are different categories of expense and should not be combined into a single estimate.

Clarify the scope of each professional fee

Ask whether a quoted fee covers the eligibility assessment, petition drafting, any request for faster processing, and responses to a government request for more evidence, or only some of these. Confirm current official fee amounts for the specific filing rather than reusing a figure from an earlier or different case. A case weakens when executive labels mask individual service work or ownership changes lack underlying records at filing.

For costs, obtain a written scope separating case analysis, petition work, response work, premium handling if chosen, and official charges. The decision is whether the company has budgeted for evidence gathering as well as filing, particularly where multiple entities must supply records. Hypothetical example: A municipal-sensor supplier expects an L-1A filing to be a single fee; it must budget for corporate records and possible follow-up evidence as well as the filing itself.