Attorney fee, USCIS fees and third-party costs are three different things. Flat vs hourly, what is excluded, and seven questions to ask — (305) 315-3425.
Reviewed by Ekaterina Fitenko, Esq. — Florida Bar #1064536. With 20+ years of experience in the legal field (Florida Bar licensed since 2025), she works with families and businesses across Florida on flat-fee immigration matters, in English and Russian.
Search for the cost of an immigration lawyer and you will mostly find ranges so wide they tell you nothing. There are real reasons for that, and one bad one.
The real reasons: the same form can be a simple filing or a complex one depending on facts that only surface in a conversation. A marriage-based petition where both spouses have clean histories and years of joint documents is not the same matter as one involving a prior removal order, an overstay, or a marriage with almost no paper trail — even though both file the same forms. Quoting a single number for "a green card" would be quoting a number for work nobody has scoped yet.
The bad reason: opacity is commercially convenient. A prospective client who cannot compare prices is easier to convert, and a fee that is never stated in writing at the start is easier to increase later.
The honest position sits between: the exact number for your matter requires knowing your facts, but the structure of the fee, what it covers, and what could change it can and should be explained before you pay anything. If a firm cannot explain its structure clearly at the first meeting, that is information about the firm.
Almost every misunderstanding about immigration cost comes from treating three different things as one.
1. The attorney's fee. What the firm charges for legal work: strategy, preparing and assembling the petition, responding to what USCIS sends back, preparing you for an interview, and being responsible for the outcome of the filing.
2. Government filing fees. Paid to USCIS or the Department of State, not to the firm. These are set by the government, change on their own schedule, and are the same whether you hire a lawyer or file yourself. Our guides to the 2026 USCIS fee schedule and premium processing cover current figures — and those figures, not any law firm's website, are the authority on what the government charges.
3. Third-party costs. Medical examinations, certified translations, document retrieval from abroad, apostilles, passport photos, courier and postage. Individually small, collectively not, and almost never included in an attorney fee.
When someone says a case "cost twelve thousand dollars", they are usually adding all three together. When a firm quotes a fee, it is normally quoting only the first. Establish which you are being told before comparing anything.
Most immigration work in the United States is billed as a flat fee per matter, and for most clients that is the better arrangement — not because it is cheaper on average, but because it moves the risk of a case taking longer than expected from the client to the firm.
With a flat fee you know the number before work begins. If the petition takes twice the expected hours, that is the firm's problem. The trade-off is that the scope must be defined precisely, because anything outside the scope is a new fee.
Hourly billing is normal in litigation-shaped work — removal proceedings, federal court, matters where nobody can predict the number of hearings. Here a flat fee would be guesswork, and an honest hourly arrangement is more transparent than a flat fee padded against uncertainty.
What should make you cautious is a flat fee with vague scope. "Handling your green card" can mean the initial petition only, or it can mean everything through the interview. The difference is thousands of dollars and it appears at the worst possible moment — when a request for evidence arrives.
Typically inside a properly scoped flat fee for a family or employment petition:
Almost never inside it, and reasonably so:
The item worth asking about specifically is a request for evidence. Firms differ: some include the response, some charge separately, some include a first response only. All three are defensible; not knowing which applies to you is not. Ask, and get the answer in the agreement. See our guide to RFEs for why these responses take real work.
If you want to understand why two people filing the same form receive different quotes, these are the usual reasons:
Inadmissibility issues. Prior overstay, unlawful presence, a removal order, criminal history, or a prior misrepresentation. These may require a waiver, which is a separate and substantial piece of work.
Thin documentary evidence. A marriage with almost no joint records, or an extraordinary-ability case where the record must be assembled and explained rather than simply attached, takes far more work than a well-documented file.
Prior filings that went wrong. Cleaning up after a denial, a withdrawn petition, or a filing prepared by a non-lawyer is usually more work than filing correctly the first time — and occasionally the earlier mistake cannot be undone at all.
Speed. Premium processing is a government fee, not a legal fee, but urgency changes how a firm has to sequence work.
Family size. Derivative spouses and children add filings and documents.
Note what is not on this list: how much you can afford, and how badly you need the outcome. A fee that moves with either is not a fee, it is pricing by desperation.
Florida attorneys work under written engagement agreements, and the agreement — not the conversation — is what governs. Before signing, confirm you can point to:
An agreement you cannot follow without a lawyer explaining it is a warning in itself.
A guarantee of approval. No one can guarantee a government decision. In immigration, a guarantee is a marketing claim, and often the sign of someone who is not a lawyer at all.
No written agreement. A fee agreed only verbally protects one side, and it is not yours.
A price far below the market. Usually a narrow scope waiting to expand, or a non-lawyer. In Florida, "notarios" and "immigration consultants" cannot give legal advice, and the damage from their filings is frequently harder to repair than the original case would have been to file.
Pressure to decide today. Immigration deadlines are real; a discount expiring this afternoon is not one of them.
Cash only, or payment to an individual rather than to the firm.
Vagueness about who does the work. If the attorney you meet will not be handling your file, that is worth knowing before you sign.
Our initial strategy session is $200 for 30 minutes, and that fee is credited toward your retainer if you decide to engage the firm.
We state this plainly because the alternative is worse for you. A free consultation is a sales meeting: its purpose is to sign you, and the incentive is to be encouraging rather than accurate. A paid session is a working meeting — we look at your actual facts and tell you what we think, including when the honest answer is that you do not have a case yet, or that a different category fits better, or that you do not need a lawyer for what you are trying to do.
The session is most useful when you arrive prepared: passports and prior USCIS notices, any court paperwork, and — most valuable of all — the dates of every entry to and departure from the United States. Those dates drive more of the analysis than anything else. Our client intake form collects this in advance so the thirty minutes go to your case rather than to basic questions.
A published fee schedule for individual matters is in preparation and will appear on this page. Until then, we quote your matter in writing after the consultation, once we know what the work actually is.
Any firm worth hiring will answer all seven without hesitation.
There is no single honest number, because the same form can be simple or complex depending on facts — prior overstays, criminal history, thin documentation, or an earlier filing that went wrong all change the work substantially. What can be stated before you pay anything is the structure: whether the fee is flat or hourly, exactly which filings it covers, what is excluded, and what would change it. A firm that cannot explain that at the first meeting is telling you something.
Normally no, and that is standard. Government fees are paid to USCIS or the Department of State, are set by the government, and are the same whether or not you hire a lawyer. Third-party costs — medical examinations, certified translations, document retrieval, apostilles — are also usually separate. Always confirm which of the three you are being quoted.
For most petition-based immigration work, yes, because it moves the risk of the case taking longer from you to the firm and you know the number in advance. Hourly is normal for litigation-shaped matters such as removal proceedings, where nobody can predict the number of hearings. The arrangement to be cautious about is a flat fee with vague scope.
It depends on the firm, and all the common approaches are defensible: included, charged separately, or a first response included. What matters is that you know which applies to you before you sign, and that it appears in the written agreement.
Usually one of two reasons. The scope is much narrower than it sounds and will expand once work begins, or the person is not an attorney. In Florida, notarios and immigration consultants may not give legal advice, and cases damaged by their filings are frequently harder to repair than the original matter would have been to file correctly. You can verify a Florida Bar number in seconds before you pay anyone.
No, and deliberately. Our initial strategy session is $200 for 30 minutes, credited toward your retainer if you engage us. A free consultation is a sales meeting with an incentive to be encouraging; a paid one is a working meeting where we can tell you that you have no case yet, or that a different category fits, or that you do not need a lawyer for this.
Call (305) 315-3425 or email fitenkolaw@gmail.com. Bring passports, prior USCIS notices, any court paperwork, and the dates of every entry to and departure from the United States. Completing our client intake form in advance means the full thirty minutes goes to your case.
This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. It does not state fees for any particular matter. Government filing fees change; confirm current amounts with the USCIS fee schedule rather than from any third-party page, and see The Florida Bar to verify that anyone you are considering hiring is a licensed attorney.
Fitenko Law PLLC, 11555 Heron Bay Blvd, Suite 227, Coral Springs, FL 33076 (main office); 600 Three Islands Blvd, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009. Phone: (305) 315-3425. Email: fitenkolaw@gmail.com