It can, because evidence has to be gathered from more than one entity and sometimes in more than one language, and because the corporate relationship for each link in the chain has to be documented. Government charges are unaffected and current amounts appear in the official USCIS fee schedule.
Translation and retrieval are the line items people forget
Two costs surprise employers in these cases. The first is certified translation of documents produced by a foreign entity, which is charged by volume and can grow quickly if a whole payroll history is submitted rather than a summary supported by samples. The second is the internal effort of retrieving records from a plant that has no reason to prioritize a colleague's transfer.
Both are manageable if planned; both are expensive if left until a deadline. Ask an adviser at the outset what will actually need translating, since that decision materially affects the bill, and read current government amounts from the official fee schedule rather than from older material, since published figures change and an outdated estimate is worse than none. Hypothetical example: Siti is a specialist in photovoltaic inspection equipment whose group wants a short U.S.
assignment. The budget review should distinguish recurring company records from case-specific proof of specialized knowledge, then budget translation, legal analysis, filing charges and possible follow-up evidence separately. Payroll and group ownership documents are usually reusable; tailored technical declarations may require time from engineers who are busy on product work.
Ask who will approve that internal time before a filing schedule is promised. The mistake is pricing the case as a routine transfer without costing the explanation of why local personnel cannot readily supply the internal knowledge. Confirm current government amounts on official materials.