Published filing fees paid by the employer, plus substantial internal scientific time to assemble and attribute the technical record. Faster processing is available at an additional published charge.
Schedule the scientific time, do not assume it
Read the fees from the USCIS fee schedule when filing. The real cost is scientific staff time: gathering validation studies, reconstructing version histories, confirming who authored which part of a protocol and writing an honest comparison with the published method is work only a small number of people in the company can do, and they are usually the ones running the laboratory. Schedule that time rather than assuming it will be found somewhere. Add translation costs where records are not in English, redaction where client data appears, and the affiliate's set-up expenses where the laboratory is new. Then hold a contingency for a request for further evidence, which is common where a first submission reads as a training visit rather than as a position requiring the company's own process.
Hypothetical example: a music-notation software publisher has a specialist whose proprietary engraving rules are documented only in scattered developer notes. The first review should budget for assembling evidence as well as filing: secure copies of source-control history, technical explanations, translations where necessary, and a role description that a non-technical reader can follow. The records themselves, not a consultant's paraphrase, settle authorship and the unusual nature of the knowledge. Sequence the expense by preserving the material before contractors reorganize it or employees leave. The common cost error is spending on premium handling while the technical proof is still incomplete. If confidentiality review, translation, or internal verification will take time, those are the real calendar and budget drivers, and they should be authorized before a filing date is promised.