This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.
2026 cost estimates for immigration in Michigan, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a immigration in Michigan costs on average $4,750, typically $2,850-$7,600 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $200 to $370 per hour. A moderate-complexity case typically takes 6-12 months to resolve.
Data verified: June 29, 2026
| Complexity | Low | Median | High | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,000 | 3-6 months |
| Moderate | $2,850 | $4,750 | $7,600 | 6-12 months |
| Complex | $8,000 | $10,950 | $15,000 | 12-24+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$200 – $370/ hour
Median: $270/hr
6-12 months
For moderate complexity cases
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</script>Immigration legal costs form around two separate line items that are easy to conflate: the attorney's fee for their work, and USCIS (or other federal agency) filing fees, which are set nationally and apply no matter which attorney — or no attorney — handles the case. A straightforward family-based petition with no complicating history is the lowest-cost scenario and is often billed as a flat fee. Employment-based petitions, waivers, or removal defense involve substantially more attorney hours preparing evidence and responding to government requests, which is reflected in the moderate and complex figures on this page.
Because filing fees are federal and state-independent, cost differences between states for immigration matters come almost entirely from local attorney market rates rather than from any difference in the underlying legal process. Cases that draw a Request for Evidence, involve a prior denial, or require appearing before an immigration judge add attorney hours (and sometimes additional filing fees) well beyond the base petition cost.
Take a moderate-complexity immigration matter in Michigan. The recorded median total is $4,750, with reported quotes clustering between $2,850 and $7,600. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,075–$2,740, which leaves roughly $2,010–$3,675 of the Michigan median as professional time — the part that differs between quotes. 2 further recorded fees are not itemised above and are not in that total.
At $4,750, the median immigration cost in Michigan runs 4% below the $4,938 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Michigan carries 3 rows — simple, $1,000–$3,000 at $150–$295/hr over 3-6 months; moderate, $2,850–$7,600 at $200–$370/hr over 6-12 months; complex, $8,000–$15,000 at $250–$445/hr over 12-24+ months — on 4 shared citations. They put it above the midpoint, short of the top quarter.
$4,750 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,900 above the $2,850 floor, $2,850 under the $7,600 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 49.
Michigan is the 25th of 49 tracked states by median immigration cost, and its $4,750 figure lands within a percent of the $4,750 midpoint of that table — the rank is meaningful, the distance is not.
Arizona ($4,750) and Tennessee ($4,700) bracket Michigan inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 25th is close to arbitrary.
Wisconsin, Arizona, Tennessee record medians within three percent of Michigan's $4,750. A immigration quote anywhere in that group is describing effectively the same market.
Ranked by hourly rate instead of by total, Michigan does not move: 25th on both measures, at $270 an hour. Rate and total are telling the same story here.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Michigan |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Maine | $5,300 | +$550 |
| 20 | Oregon | $5,300 | +$550 |
| 21 | Virginia | $5,250 | +$500 |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | $5,050 | +$300 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | $4,850 | +$100 |
| 24 | Arizona | $4,750 | −$0 |
| 25 | Michigan | $4,750 | — |
| 26 | Tennessee | $4,700 | −$50 |
| 27 | Montana | $4,500 | −$250 |
| 28 | Idaho | $4,450 | −$300 |
| 29 | Georgia | $4,400 | −$350 |
| 30 | Missouri | $4,400 | −$350 |
| 31 | Ohio | $4,400 | −$350 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 10 below Michigan against 2 above. $0 up or $50 down moves Michigan a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 25th position is propped up by a thin immigration field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Oregon, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and adding $550 to the $4,750 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Tennessee, Montana, Idaho, Georgia, Missouri: $350.
$2,400 short of Hawaii ($7,150), $1,400 clear of Kentucky ($3,350).
At $270 an hour, the $4,750 median represents about 18 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. That rounds to the same 18 hours as the peer median, so on workload Michigan is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex immigration costs 5.5x a simple one in Michigan, but the implied workload only rises 3.6x — 9 hours at $225 becomes 32 hours at $345 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.53x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $2,850 to $7,600 the moderate band is $4,750 wide, close to the $4,750 peer median. End to end that is 18 hours at $270.
Across the 6-12 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $4,750 median is roughly $528 a month of elapsed time.
By implied hours Michigan falls to 33rd of 49 at 18 hours, 8 places below its 25th on cost — the immigration total arriving on less recorded work.
40% up the $2,850–$7,600 band sits the $4,750 table midpoint, buying 18 hours at $270 against the 18 the local immigration median implies — 0 hours apart.
| Measure | Michigan | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,750 | 25th |
| Hourly median | $270 | 25th |
| Implied hours | 18 | 33rd |
| Simple median | $2,000 | 24th |
| Complex median | $10,950 | 23rd |
$270 an hour puts Michigan between Maine ($270) and Florida ($265) — not the immigration cost pairing.
Maine records the same $270: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$4,750 buys 21 hours at $225, 18 at $270, 14 at $345.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | Nevada | $275 |
| 24 | Maine | $270 |
| 25 | Michigan | $270 |
| 26 | Florida | $265 |
| 27 | Georgia | $260 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 24th at the simple tier, 25th at moderate, 23rd at complex of 49 — so Michigan keeps roughly the same relative position whether the immigration is straightforward or contested.
$2,000 is 24th of 49 on a straightforward immigration, under Georgia ($2,000) and over Texas ($1,900), $100 over the $1,900 tier midpoint.
$10,950 is 23rd of 49 once contested, between Pennsylvania ($11,000) and Texas ($10,850), $200 off the $10,750 tier midpoint.
The lower two bands run into each other — the simple tier tops out at $3,000 against a moderate floor of $2,850 — but there is a clear gap of $400 between the moderate ceiling of $7,600 and the complex floor of $8,000. In Michigan the jump into contested work is a step, not a slope.
| Tier | Michigan | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $2,000 | 24th | $1,900 | 9 |
| moderate | $4,750 | 25th | $4,750 | 18 |
| complex | $10,950 | 23rd | $10,750 | 32 |
$2,000 puts Michigan 24th of 49 on straightforward matters, 1 up on its moderate position, and $100 (5%) over the $1,900 tier midpoint.
9 implied hours at $225: 50% of the moderate tier's 18, over 3-6 months.
Georgia ($2,000) and Texas ($1,900) bracket it — a $100 window.
4 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $2,000, denser than the 3 around the moderate row.
$10,950 puts Michigan 23rd of 49 on contested matters, 2 up on its moderate position, and $200 (2%) over the $10,750 tier midpoint.
32 implied hours at $345: 178% of the moderate tier's 18, over 12-24+ months.
Pennsylvania ($11,000) and Texas ($10,850) bracket it — a $150 window.
6 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $10,950, denser than the 3 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | Utah | $2,050 |
| 23 | Georgia | $2,000 |
| 24 | Michigan | $2,000 |
| 25 | Texas | $1,900 |
| 26 | Wyoming | $1,900 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | Minnesota | $11,050 |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | $11,000 |
| 23 | Michigan | $10,950 |
| 24 | Texas | $10,850 |
| 25 | Wyoming | $10,750 |
In Michigan a immigration is 5th of 8 at $4,750, between Personal Injury and Bankruptcy. At 46% of Criminal Defense ($10,400).
The state does not rank uniformly. Michigan is 16th of 49 for Personal Injury but 32nd for Estate Planning / Probate, a 16-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 25th on immigration says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Divorce runs 12% above its own midpoint, while Estate Planning / Probate runs 11% below its own midpoint — 23 percentage points apart. A single "Michigan is expensive" or "Michigan is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
Michigan's practice areas fan out more than most: its largest tracked median is 5.6x its smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state. Prices here are set matter by matter rather than by one statewide level.
1 of 7 matter types rank Michigan in the upper third, 0 in the lower, 6 between; immigration is 25th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 50th percentile of the 49 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,750 | $10,400 | $28,550 | 35 | 24th | +2% | Pennsylvania |
| Divorce | $3,250 | $9,600 | $19,900 | 33 | 18th | +12% | Illinois |
| DUI / DWI | $3,750 | $7,950 | $15,250 | 29 | 19th | +7% | California |
| Personal Injury | $1,600 | $5,100 | $15,200 | — | 16th | −2% | Georgia |
| Immigration | $2,000 | $4,750 | $10,950 | 18 | 25th | level | Arizona |
| Bankruptcy | $1,450 | $3,600 | $4,850 | 14 | 24th | level | Arizona |
| Real Estate Closing | $950 | $2,050 | $4,250 | 8 | — | −8% | — |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $650 | $1,850 | $5,650 | 7 | 32nd | −11% | Florida |
Simple tier. $2,000 ÷ $225 = about 9 hours, spread over 3-6 months at roughly $444 a month. The $2,750 step to the moderate tier is 9 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,750 to $10,950 is a $6,200 step, mostly work: 14 more hours at $270 is $3,780, while moving to $345 across 32 hours adds $2,400. Work carries 61%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Tennessee ($4,700) lands $50 under Michigan; from Arizona ($4,750), $0 over; from the $4,750 table midpoint, $0 out.
Both ends, in time. $2,850 is 11 hours at $270; $7,600 is 28. Over the 6-12 months recorded for a moderate immigration, that is 1 to 3 hours a month — the difference between an occasional file review and continuous work.
Contested against simple. At Michigan's own recorded figures, $10,950 buys 5.5 matters at the $2,000 simple median — or, counted in time, 32 implied hours against 9, a factor of 3.6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Michigancourt's own schedule; billing models are covered in the legal fees guide.
This tool provides general cost estimates for informational purposes only. It is NOT legal advice. Costs vary significantly based on individual circumstances. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for specific guidance.