A modest published charge at a port of entry, or the petition fee where the employer files instead. Credential evaluation, translations and maintaining a professional designation are the costs the applicant carries.
The designation costs more than the application
Government charges are published and should be read at the time of filing: the port-of-entry charge for an application made in person, or the amounts in the USCIS fee schedule where an employer files a petition, with faster processing available at additional cost as a business decision. The applicant's own costs sit around them. Keeping a professional designation in good standing carries annual dues and continuing-education requirements that do not stop on moving, and a designation allowed to lapse takes the qualification with it. Where a degree is relied on instead, an evaluation and certified translations are the main expenses. Add courier charges for original documents and the cost of duplicating the file. Ask the employer in writing what it will reimburse, because assumptions about that are frequently wrong.
Hypothetical example: a small publishing company offers a librarian a position but says only that it will provide support for the application. The first review should turn that phrase into a written allocation: government charges, translations, credential evaluation, courier delivery, travel, and any professional dues. The fee schedule and the employer's reimbursement policy settle different points and should be saved separately with their dates. Sequence spending so that documents likely to be reused, such as transcripts and evaluations, are ordered before optional expedited processing is considered. The common budget error is adding a contingency without identifying what triggers it. Ask whether a rejected evaluation, a revised employer letter, or a later petition would create another charge, and who would bear it, before money is committed.