Ask the engagement terms to identify what initial review, filing, government-response work, family processing and later I-829 preparation include. The scope may change if the file has several sources or unresolved project issues.
Tie the estimate to the actual package
Give counsel the gap list before relying on a final quote. Separate professional charges from government payments, administration fees and qualifying capital. Confirm who pays for translations, economic reports or third-party records.
Record assumptions and potential additional work without treating an estimate as a guarantee. Preserve the source and payment evidence for relevant fees alongside the capital trail. Estimates break in two familiar places.
Work priced as a single source-of-funds review becomes several when the money turns out to have multiple strands, and family processing quoted for a straightforward household expands when a derivative needs separate documents or a separate route. Neither is a billing dispute where the engagement said what triggers additional work. Hypothetical example: an investor funding a subscription-box fulfilment enterprise describes the capital as personal savings, and preparation later reveals a business sale, a loan repayment and a gift feeding the same account; the source analysis becomes several exercises rather than one, and the quote had assumed one.
Give counsel the untidy version of the funding story before asking for a number.
- USCIS Policy Manual: EB-5 investor eligibility
- USCIS Policy Manual: removal of EB-5 conditions
- Department of State: immigrant investor consular stages (eligibility amounts are outdated)
- SEC and USCIS: investment scams and EB-5 due diligence
- USCIS Policy Manual: Child Status Protection Act
- USCIS Policy Manual: evidence and translations