It may avoid the new-office framework if the actual facts support established-office treatment, but incorporation age alone is insufficient. Budget the evidence needed to show operations, staffing and managerial duties. Government and legal fees are separate from the affiliate’s payroll and operating expenses.
Price the evidence gaps
Ask whether financial statements, payroll extracts or translated foreign corporate records are already available. A new accountant’s report should answer a real evidentiary need rather than recreate records without purpose. The employer’s immigration budget should also state who pays for family filings and any additional work caused by a changed transfer date or job structure.
Every L-1 petition carries the base Form I-129 fee, the anti-fraud fee and, depending on the petitioner's size, an asylum-program fee; premium processing is a separate optional charge that buys a faster decision rather than a better one. The government fees for Form I-129, the applicable fraud-prevention and other statutory charges, and any premium-processing request are published on the USCIS fee schedule and should be read from there rather than copied from an old estimate. Retrieving payroll from a retired system, obtaining certified copies of transaction documents, translating agreements executed abroad, and having counsel read the corporate chain all take chargeable time that a straightforward internal move would not require.