The USCIS fee schedule sets the standalone investor's Form I-526 petition fee and the I-829 removal-of-conditions fee, and immigrant visa processing carries Department of State charges per person. Professional fees for the business plan, source-of-funds analysis and legal work are separate and vary. The investment itself remains at risk and is not a fee.
Fees are recoverable in no case; capital may be
The investor should distinguish three flows of money. The first is the capital, which is invested in the enterprise, must remain at risk for the applicable statutory and USCIS sustainment period, and may be returned or lost depending on how the plant performs. The second is government fees, set by the USCIS fee schedule for the petition and the later I-829, plus immigrant visa fees charged by the Department of State for each family member; none of these are refundable.
The third is professional cost: a compliant business plan with job projections, an accountant's source-of-funds report, and legal fees. Hypothetical example: a Lake Country contractor budgets the plant's capital at the standard threshold, discovers the site does not qualify as a targeted employment area, and must raise additional capital; his adviser fees do not change but his at-risk investment does. Refer to the USCIS fee schedule for the current government figures rather than to amounts quoted in older articles.