How Much Does an E-1 Visa Cost in 2026? The Full Breakdown

Every E-1 case pays the government on one of two routes, and the route decides the fees. At a consulate you pay the visa fee and, for some nationalities, a second fee at issuance. A change of status or an extension filed with USCIS carries petition fees in place of the visa fee. The attorney fee and a business plan, where you use one, come on top of either route.

The estimate starts at $9,815 for a trader who applies alone at a consulate: the fixed $8,000 attorney fee, the $1,500 business plan and the $315 visa fee. The full breakdown switches the route to USCIS, takes the number of full-time US employees, and adds premium processing and family members, with the total updating as you go.

A consular E-1 application has one government fee before the interview: $315 per person, paid to the State Department. You usually pay it before you can book the appointment. The fee is not refunded if the visa is refused. The DS-160 that every applicant files and the DS-156E that every E-1 applicant adds carry no charge of their own.

The consulate charges a second fee by nationality, and only when it issues the visa. This reciprocity fee mirrors what your country charges US citizens for a similar visa. The same reciprocity schedule sets how long the visa runs and how many entries it allows. Most treaty nationalities pay nothing on the E-1 schedule, and a few pay more than the visa fee itself.

A trader already in the US on another status, or extending E-1 status, files Form I-129 with USCIS and pays two fees on it. The petition fee is $510 when the company has 25 or fewer full-time employees in the US, and $1,015 on paper or $965 online above that. The Asylum Program Fee that travels with every I-129 is $300 at the lower tier, $600 at the higher one, and nothing for a nonprofit. Most trading companies pay $810.

USCIS counts only staff in the United States: full-time equivalents in the company and its US affiliates and subsidiaries. The parent company’s workforce abroad stays out of the count. A trading house with thousands of staff at home and eight in its US subsidiary files as a small employer. Its latest quarterly payroll return, Form 941, proves the number.

Expect two fee sets when the case begins with USCIS. The approval gives you E-1 status without a visa. Your first trip abroad then ends at a consulate, with the visa fee and the file again. When leaving is impractical, a change of status inside the US still works, and the later consular fee set belongs in its budget.

The company pays, once for every employee it sends. With USCIS the company is the petitioner, and it files one Form I-129 per employee because a petition covers only one worker. Each petition carries its own $510 or $1,015 fee and its own Asylum Program Fee, so five employees mean five fee sets. At a consulate each employee’s application carries the $315 fee and any reciprocity fee.

Some posts register the company the first time it applies. The first applicant files the full company file with the E visa unit, and the unit approves and registers the enterprise. Later employees apply on that registration without proving the trade again. The registration adds no fee, and each later E-1 employee still pays the visa fee; what shrinks is the file and the legal work.

Each employee’s application is also a separate legal file, with its own job description and evidence of the role. The attorney fee grows with each person the company sends.

An E-1 petition filed with USCIS can move to premium processing on Form I-907 for $2,965. USCIS then commits to act within 15 business days. Within that window USCIS approves, denies, asks for more evidence or warns that it intends to deny. The fee brings the date of the decision forward and has no effect on the decision itself.

The same fee applies to a first change of status, an extension and an amendment. A company filing for several employees pays it per petition. If USCIS misses the window, it refunds the fee under 8 CFR 106.4 and keeps the case in the premium queue. A consulate has no premium option.

Published attorney fees for an E-1 case run from about $6,000 to $15,000, and the size of the trade file moves the quote. It rises with the number of transactions to list and the languages the invoices are written in. It rises again when the ownership of several companies has to be traced to treaty nationals.

A complete quote covers the eligibility review on the over-half share of trade and the transaction spreadsheet tied to its invoices and shipping records. It also covers the DS-160 and DS-156E or the Form I-129 package, the cover letter and exhibits, and interview preparation. Check that it includes a reply to a request for more documents after the interview.

imigOS prices an E-1 case at a fixed $8,000 for a licensed immigration attorney, agreed before you commit, from case strategy through the filing. That fee takes in the review of the trade documents, the legal brief and the government forms, and the submission. Every reply to a request for evidence and the courier costs are in it too. The pricing page sets out what sits inside it.

An E-1 application needs a business plan. The standard E-1 document checklists list one, and the officer reads it beside the trade record to judge that the trade will continue and keep the US office running. On imigOS a separate business-plan writer produces it for about $1,500; published prices for an immigration plan run from about $1,500 to $5,000.

An E-1 plan describes what is traded, with whom and in what volume, and how the US office supports that trade. It adds revenue and staffing projections for one, three and five years. The trade already recorded still carries the case, and the E-1 visa requirements explain what that record has to prove.

A business-plan writer produces the plan, and the attorney checks that its figures agree with the transaction spreadsheet, the forms and the exhibits. The officer reads all of them against each other.

The E-1 file is built from the company’s own records, so the cost is preparation work rather than a fee. The packet lists every qualifying transaction of the last calendar year, with the date, invoice number and dollar value of each. The invoices, bills of lading or air waybills, ledgers and recent tax returns go in behind the list.

Every document in another language is translated in full, with the translator’s signed statement of competence. USCIS requires this by regulation, and the posts ask for it in their own instructions. Certified translation is usually priced by the page, so a year of foreign-language invoices is a cost no fee schedule fixes. Some posts also cap the page count or file size, and the full set then travels with you to the interview.

Some books do not show the share of trade with the treaty country on their own. An accountant’s statement or audited financials then fill the gap, at the accountant’s rate.

Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 take E-1 status with you. At a consulate the visa fee and any E-1 reciprocity fee are charged per person. Inside the US one Form I-539 covers the whole family for $470 on paper or $420 online.

The spouse may work as soon as E-1S status begins, and an I-94 record marked E-1S is what an employer checks. A spouse who wants the card anyway files Form I-765 at $520 on paper or $470 online. Children study on E-1 status and do not work.

Only the trader needs the treaty nationality. A spouse or child of any nationality pays the same fees, with a visa issued on the trader’s reciprocity schedule.

An extension inside the US repeats the first filing’s fees. A new Form I-129 carries the petition fee and the Asylum Program Fee, and premium processing is optional again. USCIS grants up to two years each time with no cap on how often, so a trader on this route pays the petition fees every two years.

The visa in your passport renews at a consulate, on the reciprocity schedule’s terms. Turkey, the UK, Germany, Japan and Canada get 60 months, Israel 52, France 48 and Mexico 12 or 48. Each entry admits you for up to two years. A renewal is a new E-1 visa application at the consulate, with both consular fees again.

A renewal file is shorter, because the trade and the ownership were proved the first time. It carries the last two years of tax returns, the quarterly payroll reports and a letter confirming the role. A sale, a merger or a new owner is a substantive change instead. Inside the US it needs a new Form I-129 with the full fees; from abroad it needs a new visa application.

The usual E-1 total sits between $9,800 and $13,800. The four cases below cover a trader alone, a family that pays a reciprocity fee, a change of status with premium processing, and a later employee.