Government fees are those on the USCIS fee schedule for Form I-129, including the fraud prevention and detection fee and, if the company chooses it, premium processing. Money is wasted on a petition filed before the duties or the qualifying year are ready, because a denial repeats every cost.
A denied petition costs twice; a delayed one costs once
Consult the USCIS fee schedule for current amounts rather than relying on figures from a previous filing; fees change and some, such as the asylum program fee, depend on the petitioner's size. Professional fees cover the support letter, the corporate evidence and the duty analysis. The avoidable expense is filing when the facts are not yet strong.
In the ventilation company's case, filing while the subsidiary has only two installers and the proposed role remains substantially hands-on invites a denial or a request for evidence, after which the company pays again with facts that have not changed. Better to spend the intervening months hiring a service coordinator in the United States, moving the transferee into a documented managerial role in Canada, and then filing once. Relocation, housing, the spouse's licensing and the children's schooling belong in a separate household budget, and the seven-year ceiling means any permanent-residence plan should be costed as its own project.