A market study may provide background, but it does not by itself prove the employee’s knowledge or its role in the U.S. assignment. Start with company evidence of actual experience and contribution.
Spend on relevant proof
If outside research is proposed, identify the precise comparison or operating condition it will explain and how it connects to the employee. Keep that expense separate from government charges, applicable supplements, professional preparation, optional premium processing and dependent costs. Avoid a costly general report that repeats public facts while leaving the personal knowledge and employment evidence unresolved.
Purchased research earns its place only when it can be aimed at a specific evidentiary hole. Before commissioning anything, write down the sentence the report is meant to support, then ask whether an internal record could support it instead — internal records are cheaper, dated, and attributable to the employee, which a market report never is. Hypothetical example: a survey-research operations firm weighing an industry study for its transferee finds that its own fieldwork protocols and interviewer training materials already show the advanced knowledge, while the study would only have described the sector around it.
Hold any research expense apart from government charges, applicable supplements, professional preparation, optional premium processing and dependent costs, so the file shows what was bought and why. A report describing an industry proves nothing about one person’s knowledge of it.