Expect time for record retrieval, a written chronology, and legal analysis of the earlier activity, on top of the substantive investment work. Ask for an itemized scope covering document review, the filing itself, dependents, and later questions. Government fees should be confirmed as current when each step arrives.
Price the review against the alternative
For a Saint-Eustache reader considering a hypothetical US purchase, an unresolved history question discovered late can delay a closing that already carries committed deposits. Paying for the review early can clarify the risks and identify unresolved facts, though it buys no guarantee. Keep acquisition costs separate from case-preparation fees in your records, since whether a particular professional cost forms part of the qualifying investment depends on what it actually covered.
Budget in the order in which the money stops being recoverable. Professional fees for a review are spent and gone, but they are spent before anything larger has been committed, which is what makes them the inexpensive part of the sequence. A deposit released under a schedule set by the vendor is the expensive part, because it moves first and asks nothing about the immigration position.
Hypothetical example: a buyer negotiating for a clinical-supplies wholesaler agrees to a payment schedule drafted around the vendor's financial year, then finds the first two instalments falling due before the history review can be finished. Ask for the transaction's payment dates and the review's expected dates on one page. Official charges should be confirmed as current when each step arrives rather than estimated once at the start.