Regional-centre administrative fees, the petition and later filing fees on the USCIS schedule, immigrant-visa fees, legal and accounting costs, and the tax cost of raising the capital. None of these count as investment.
List the non-refundable costs before the refundable-in-theory capital
Hypothetical example: the couple budgets only for the capital and is surprised by a regional-centre administrative fee that is charged in addition and is not returned if the project fails. Write a second column beside the capital: the centre's administrative fee, the investor petition fee and the separate integrity-fund fee, later filings for adjustment or the immigrant visa and for removal of conditions, medical examinations, legal fees for the petition and for reviewing the offering, an accountant on both sides of the border, and the Canadian tax cost of collapsing retirement savings and selling the house in the same year. Add the cost of holding the capital idle in escrow while the petition is pending. Then ask the regional centre, in writing, what the fund's repayment terms are and when capital could return, so the household's retirement plan is built on the documents rather than the brochure. A project's marketing return is not part of the immigration test.
Hypothetical example: an e-commerce fulfilment project quotes an administrative charge, a legal fee, and the capital contribution, but the investor also needs to sell securities to fund the transfer. The decision is whether the after-tax net proceeds still meet the applicable capital requirement and leave room for all non-capital charges. An opening file audit should assemble two columns: funds that become at-risk capital and all fees, taxes, medical, filing, and transaction expenses that do not. Obtain written refund terms for every charge, since an administrative fee can be nonrefundable even if the petition is denied. A budget fails when it counts a fee as investment or assumes a projected project distribution is available to pay later immigration costs. Keep the investment account separately documented.