A project budget and the investor’s actual qualifying contribution are different. Do not add planned salaries to the investor’s capital merely because they appear in the business plan.
Reconcile the contribution and the use of funds
Examine who supplies the funds and the actual investment arrangement. Recruiting or payroll costs may inform the project’s operations, but they do not automatically increase the amount personally invested or prove qualifying jobs exist.
Government filing fees for the investor petition and the later petition to remove conditions appear in the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055. Keep administrative, legal, government and relocation charges distinct from qualifying capital. The investment itself must reach the applicable threshold in full; fees do not count toward it. Review project terms and current official fees without assuming a refusal produces a refund or that a larger investment resolves the issue. Keep professional and transaction expenses separate unless governing investment documents properly place an amount into qualifying capital. Professional fees vary with the actual work, so ask whether a quote covers source-of-funds review and the I-829 stage. Legal fees for the petition and for the source-of-funds work depend on how tidy the corporate history is, and a thirty-year company with a buyout and a land sale will take more hours than a salary-based source.