The USCIS petition fee and any fraud-prevention and asylum program fees under Form G-1055, optional premium processing, and the real cost of documenting a seasonal payroll and a subsidiary that must be genuinely operating.
The expensive part is proving the subsidiary is real
Hypothetical example: a Frontenac Islands hay company budgets for the Form I-129 fee and is surprised by the rest. The government fees are set by the USCIS fee schedule and depend on the petitioner's size and the options chosen; premium processing is a separate fee for a faster decision. The larger costs are structural.
The U.S. subsidiary must be doing business before a standard petition is filed, which means a yard lease, state registrations, payroll and insurance in place months in advance, and if it is not yet operating the petition is a new-office case that must be extended after one year with fresh evidence. The Canadian company must reconstruct a continuous year of employment for a seasonal manager, which may involve an accountant's time and, in some cases, a decision to carry the manager on payroll through a winter.
Professional review of the duty descriptions and organizational charts is usually worth more than premium processing. Hypothetical example: A Frontenac Islands commercial-refrigeration supplier budgets only for the petition charge when moving its manager. The first review should list the filing charge, any optional faster adjudication, legal preparation, translations, and travel separately from the company’s relocation budget.
The current USCIS fee schedule settles the government amount, while the service agreement settles professional charges. Treating those categories separately lets the company decide whether speed is worth the additional outlay.