Government charges for the immigrant petition, the removal-of-conditions petition and any adjustment or consular steps appear on the USCIS fee schedule and are paid per petition, with derivatives adding their own fees. Regional-center administrative fees, legal fees for immigration and for reviewing the offering, and diligence costs are separate.
Ask which payments are capital, which are fees, and which are refundable
Build the budget in three parts. Capital: the qualifying investment amount, which must be at risk and is the sum the enterprise deploys. Project fees: a regional-center offering usually charges an administrative fee on top of the capital, which is not invested and not refundable; read the subscription agreement to see what happens to it if the petition is denied.
Process fees: the government's charges at each stage, immigration counsel, a securities or corporate lawyer to review the offering, an accountant to assemble the source-of-funds package, and translation of any French-language records. Then ask what the offering promises if the project fails to create the jobs — some offer a redeployment, others nothing. Hypothetical example: an East Hants couple compare two projects on projected return alone; the one with the lower return has a documented job cushion and a refund clause for denial, which matters more to the immigration outcome than the extra percentage.