As an US immigration consultant, you can either get hired with an existing company or you can set up your own business, either on American soil or in your native country. If you choose the latter, then it is very important to be able to correctly assess the value of your work and to price it accordingly. Fortunately, the US immigration consultancy industry allows for very rewarding consultant fees, since there are so many people looking to settle in or at least visit the USA, and they all need assistance.

The initial investment

Naturally, when considering your fees, you should take into account the initial investment required to get certified and to start the business. Perhaps one of the major advantages of this industry, however, is that the initial investment is so small that the risks are minimal.

For instance, when it comes to certification, you don’t have to spend more than 4 years on higher education, nor do you have to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on tuition fees. All you need to be able to practice US immigration consultancy legitimately is a specialized program, which only lasts for a few months and results in a qualification diploma. Needless to say that the cost for this program represents a mere fraction of the exorbitant traditional tuition fees.

Better yet, with an entirely online immigration consultant program such as ours, you can study for your certification part time and dedicate the rest of your day to a different job with a steady income. By the time you graduate, you will most likely have enough money set on a side to start your own business, and this is not a lot, since you can begin with a small office and your own skills. As you gain more clients, you can think of adding employees and investing further.

The rule of the thirds

This rule gives the most common way to set immigration consultant fees for independent specialists. What they do is to take the hourly payment plus benefits that they would receive as normal employees and triple it. The result is their own immigration consultant fees. The rule of the thirds means that one salary is your actual payment, the second is used for expenses and the third for administration, low utilization and bad debt. Tripling a normal salary might seem like a surprising number at first, but if you think about it, you actually have to take care of more expenses when you manage your own business than when you work for someone else.

Surveying the market

Of course, as in any industry, it is also very important to survey the market and the competition. This can be a very powerful tool for the development of your business, as it can give you information about how high your fees should be to ensure both a profitable outcome and a steady number of clients. If for instance you’ve just started off and you feel that gaining customers and reputation is the most important thing, then you can place your immigration consultant fees slightly under those of your competitors. Even later in your career, comparing your pricing to that of the market in general will be a great check and a way to ensure that your business does not stagnate.