Government filing fees published by USCIS, plus legal, accounting and translation costs for building the source-of-funds record. Regional-centre projects also charge their own administrative fees.
The capital is not a fee, and the fees are not small
The capital is the investment and remains at risk; it should never be described as a fee. Around it sit the filing fees for the investor petition and for the later petition to remove conditions, both published in the USCIS fee schedule and revised from time to time. Legal fees reflect the volume of documentation rather than a fixed task, so a mixed-source file costs more to prepare than a single-source one. Accountants may need to reconstruct historic records, and translators may be needed for anything not already in English. A regional-centre investment normally carries an administration fee separate from the capital, and that fee is generally not returned. Ask, in writing and before signing anything, which amounts are refundable and in exactly which circumstances.
Hypothetical example: a custom-orthotics plant investor compares two projects solely by the capital amount, overlooking professional fees, document retrieval, tax advice, currency transfer costs, and the cash needed to meet the staffing plan. The first review should separate qualifying capital from transaction and operating expenses. Fee schedules settle filing charges; audited statements, budgets, and payroll assumptions test the real cost. Price the entire commitment before choosing a project. The usual error is selecting a lower entry figure that cannot sustain the job creation evidence later required during conditional residence.