A fragmented chronology may require additional review of payroll, travel, role changes and corporate history. Those professional costs are separate from applicable filing charges and any later visa or family processing.
Price the uncertainty early
Provide the available records before accepting a fixed scope so counsel can identify difficult date calculations or gaps. Translation or document retrieval may also be needed. Do not pay for a faster filing before confirming that the qualifying period is established; premium processing cannot create missing employment eligibility.
Check current government fees once the route is selected, and keep evidence-preparation expenses distinct from company operating costs. Price the uncertainty early rather than discovering it partway through. Where the employment history is straightforward and well documented, the review is a modest exercise.
Where an employee has moved between group entities, worked across borders, changed roles or been paid through more than one arrangement, the reconstruction can be substantial, and it may involve retrieving records from another jurisdiction or from systems the company has replaced. Ask the adviser to scope the chronology work separately from the substantive preparation, and to report on eligibility before the rest proceeds. That sequence costs a little more at the outset and avoids the considerably larger cost of preparing a case that the chronology would have shown could not be supported on the intended date.