The regional centre's administrative fee, which is separate from the capital and usually not returned; USCIS fees for Forms I-526E and I-829 and the reform-law surcharges under the current fee schedule; consular fees; and professional fees for the source-of-funds work and the securities review.
Capital is at risk; fees are gone
The US$800,000 or US$1,050,000 is the investment, and in a regional-centre offering it goes into the new commercial enterprise and is intended to be returned only if the project succeeds and the partnership's terms allow. The administrative or syndication fee that most sponsors charge on top is a cost, not capital, and does not count toward the required amount. Government charges are set on Form G-1055 and include the investor-petition fee, the removal-of-conditions fee and the additional fee the reform law directs to an integrity fund; consular processing adds Department of State charges for each family member.
Independent legal review of the offering, and the source-of-funds documentation for fifteen years of property, are professional costs worth budgeting properly rather than minimizing. Add the real-estate commissions and capital-gains tax on selling the rentals, which reduce the net available, and get Canadian tax advice on the exit before setting the sale prices. Hypothetical example: The owner of a commercial-window fabrication business sells a warehouse and considers a regional-centre subscription.
Before signing, the first review should separate the required investment from every administrative, legal, tax and placement-related charge, then test whether the sale leaves enough documented net proceeds. The purchase agreement, closing statement, mortgage payout and bank trail settle the available capital. The qualifying investment must remain at risk and the project must support the required job creation; an extra fee does neither.
A low quoted professional fee can be costly if it leaves the source-of-funds narrative unable to explain a business sale or intercompany transfer.