Clarify what record collection, time analysis and role review are included, separately from current official charges. A complex history may need more than a review of the newest approval.
Define the factual work before commissioning another filing
Identify the actual uncertainty about available time before assuming another petition is appropriate. Additional preparation fees cannot create eligibility where the applicable limit or other requirements are not met. Divide the estimate into two phases and price them separately, because the second only makes sense once the first has an answer.
Phase one is factual: collecting records, resolving gaps and producing a defensible chronology. Phase two is the filing itself. A single figure covering both hides the possibility that phase one ends the matter, which is precisely the outcome worth paying to discover early.
Ask what happens to the fee if the reconstruction shows the available time does not support the assignment — whether the scope closes there, and what remains owed. Ask also who pays for records that must be bought from third parties, and whether translation of any foreign-language document is inside the scope. Additional preparation fees cannot create eligibility where the applicable limit or another requirement is not met, so the money is better spent learning that before an assignment is announced than afterwards.