Operating expenditure, staffing and premises needs must be planned alongside qualifying capital. Immigration filings, business-plan assistance, legal work and family processing also require budgeting, with careful review of what counts as invested capital.
Avoid double-counting business and filing money
Prepare a sources-and-uses schedule that identifies each expense and the funds paying it. Have appropriate advisers assess accounting treatment and capital eligibility rather than assuming every business-related invoice qualifies. Include ongoing payroll recordkeeping and later I-829 preparation.
Business revenue projections are forecasts and should not be represented as guaranteed funds for immigration fees or household support. Keep business money and filing money in separate budgets, since conflating them produces a figure that misstates both. The business budget covers everything the enterprise needs to operate and to create the positions: premises, equipment, payroll and employer costs, working capital and a contingency for a slower start than projected.
The filing budget covers government charges, professional fees for the petition and for the later stage, and the costs of documenting the source of funds. Neither substitutes for the other, and capital counted as investment cannot also be counted as covering fees. Add the cost of the recordkeeping the later stage will require, including any bookkeeping or payroll service, since that is an ongoing operating expense rather than a one-off.