The price range for an E-2 business plan is wide — from $299 to over $10,000 — and the difference is rarely about legal quality. It's about who writes it, how much of your time it takes, and how fast you need it.
What Drives the Price
Specialist immigration business plan writing firms typically charge $2,000-$5,000 for an E-2 plan, with turnaround of 7-15 days. You're paying for a writer who has done this specific document type repeatedly and understands the E-2 legal tests (substantiality, non-marginality, active direction) even if they aren't an attorney themselves.
Immigration attorneys who draft the plan in-house (rather than referring out) often charge more — sometimes $5,000-$10,000+ — because you're paying attorney billing rates for drafting work that doesn't strictly require a law degree, just familiarity with the standard.
Generic business plan consultants unfamiliar with immigration law sometimes charge less ($800-$2,000) but produce plans that miss the specific legal tests entirely — a generic "great business plan" that never mentions substantiality or non-marginality is not fit for purpose, no matter how well-written.
AI-assisted tools built specifically around the E-2 legal framework can produce a comparable first draft in under two hours for a fraction of the cost — PlanForge AI's E-2 plan is $299, built around the actual 8 CFR 214.2(e) standard, for you and your attorney to review before filing.
What You're Actually Paying For
In every case — expensive or affordable — the deliverable should be the same core content: an executive summary, investor background and source of funds, entity structure, itemized investment breakdown, market analysis, operations plan, a five-year hiring table, five-year financials, a non-marginality argument, and a section on your active role. If a $5,000 plan and a $299 plan both produce that structure with specific, internally consistent numbers, the legal substance is comparable — what differs is turnaround time and how much of the writing labor you're paying a human for versus AI.
Where It's Worth Paying More
Complexity genuinely changes cost. A straightforward single-location retail business is simpler to plan than a multi-entity structure, a business with several revenue lines, or an unusual investment structure (partial financing, phased capital deployment, a joint venture). If your situation is unusual, a higher-touch service — or at minimum, a plan that your attorney reviews closely and adjusts — is worth the extra cost.
What Never Changes Regardless of Price
No business plan, at any price, should:
- Guarantee visa approval (no legitimate provider does this)
- Fabricate financial data, market statistics, or evidence you haven't actually provided
- Skip the non-marginality or active-direction arguments
- Be generic enough to swap out the business name and reuse for someone else
A plan is a draft for your attorney to review, not a legal filing itself, no matter what you paid for it. The cheapest and most expensive options should both make that clear.