Confirm the actual professional scope and government charges for your own circumstances.
Compare the work required
Similar titles do not guarantee identical evidence needs or procedures. A previous invoice is not a current quotation, and matching another person’s spending cannot guarantee matching their result.
Price the case only after identifying its actual evidence burden and procedure. Review the employee’s foreign-service calendar, corporate relationship, specialized-knowledge proof, US assignment and any client-site control issues; each can require different records or professional work. Government charges should be confirmed on the current Form G-1055 schedule, while translations, document retrieval and adviser services belong in separate budget lines. A colleague’s invoice may reflect another filing date, family, employer size or evidentiary problem. Spending the same amount creates no eligibility. The core conditions remain one continuous qualifying year abroad within the prior three, active related entities and company-focused special or advanced knowledge. New offices start with a one-year approval; L-1B has a five-year maximum.
Hypothetical example: a process analyst at a Canton of Hatley microbrewery-canning-line manufacturer compares her estimate with a coworker’s inexpensive transfer. Unlike him, she must reconstruct training completed after a merger and document why her configuration method exceeds general commissioning skill. She asks for an itemized scope covering corporate records, translations and petition work, then checks official charges directly. Removing copied evidence may raise preparation effort but improves accuracy. The useful comparison is what her own record needs, not whether two employees receive identical invoices.