Because the money goes into evidence, not into forms. A first-time petition usually requires financial statements prepared to a standard the company does not otherwise use, certified translations of Quebec corporate records, an organisational chart built from payroll, and frequently a second round of work after a request for evidence.
Budget for the evidence, and treat premium processing as a clock
Hypothetical example: Benoit's company budgets the filing fee shown on the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055, and nothing else, then discovers what a first petition actually consumes. Share registers, minute books and the incorporation documents of both entities are in French and require complete certified translations. The accountant has to produce statements for a company that has never needed audited figures.
Payroll data has to be turned into a chart of named subordinates. When a request for evidence arrives asking who Benoit's transferee actually supervises, the work is done a second time under a deadline. Premium processing is worth understanding correctly: it buys a decision within a defined period, and a fast request for evidence is a decision of a kind.
It does not raise the odds of approval, and paying for it on a thin petition simply reaches the same answer sooner. The fee schedule changes periodically, so quote Form G-1055 rather than a remembered figure.
- USCIS: L-1A intracompany transferee executive or manager
- USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 2 Part L: intracompany transferees
- USCIS: L classification documentation and evidence
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.2(l), intracompany transferees
- Department of State: 9 FAM 402.12, intracompany transferees
- USCIS: Form G-1055, fee schedule