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 Montana, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a immigration in Montana costs on average $4,500, typically $2,700-$7,200 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $175 to $330 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 | $900 | $1,800 | $2,700 | 3-6 months |
| Moderate | $2,700 | $4,500 | $7,200 | 6-12 months |
| Complex | $6,800 | $9,300 | $12,700 | 12-24+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$175 – $330/ hour
Median: $245/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 Montana. The recorded median total is $4,500, with reported quotes clustering between $2,700 and $7,200. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,075–$2,740, which leaves roughly $1,760–$3,425 of the Montana 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 $4,500, the median immigration cost in Montana runs 9% below the $4,938 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Montana carries 3 rows — simple, $900–$2,700 at $135–$265/hr over 3-6 months; moderate, $2,700–$7,200 at $175–$330/hr over 6-12 months; complex, $6,800–$12,700 at $220–$400/hr over 12-24+ months — on 4 shared citations. They put it below the midpoint of the table without reaching the bottom quarter.
$4,500 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,800 above the $2,700 floor, $2,700 under the $7,200 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 49.
Montana occupies the 27th row of 49 for a immigration. Its $4,500 median trails the $4,750 table midpoint by $250, which is 5% — close enough that a single firm's quote can straddle both figures.
Idaho is the nearest state below at $4,450 — $50 away — while the next state up, Tennessee, is a wider $200 step at $4,700. Montana therefore sits at the top edge of a band rather than in the middle of one.
5 tracked states — Idaho, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio among them — record a median within three percent of Montana's $4,500. The figure sits in the densest part of the immigration distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
Hourly rate does not explain this state's position. At $245 an hour Montana is only 34th of 49 on rate, yet 27th on total immigration cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Montana |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Virginia | $5,250 | +$750 |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | $5,050 | +$550 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | $4,850 | +$350 |
| 24 | Arizona | $4,750 | +$250 |
| 25 | Michigan | $4,750 | +$250 |
| 26 | Tennessee | $4,700 | +$200 |
| 27 | Montana | $4,500 | — |
| 28 | Idaho | $4,450 | −$50 |
| 29 | Georgia | $4,400 | −$100 |
| 30 | Missouri | $4,400 | −$100 |
| 31 | Ohio | $4,400 | −$100 |
| 32 | Wyoming | $4,400 | −$100 |
| 33 | Florida | $4,350 | −$150 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 12 below Montana against 4 above. $200 up or $50 down moves Montana a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 27th position is propped up by a thin immigration field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Tennessee and adding $550 to the $4,500 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Idaho, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Wyoming: $100.
$2,650 short of Hawaii ($7,150), $1,150 clear of Kentucky ($3,350).
At $245 an hour, the $4,500 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 Montana is indistinguishable from the middle of the table at this precision.
The escalation is comparatively shallow on hours. A complex immigration costs 5.2x a simple one in Montana, but the implied workload only rises 3.3x — 9 hours at $200 becomes 30 hours at $310 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.55x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
From $2,700 to $7,200 the moderate band is $4,500 wide, close to the $4,750 peer median. End to end that is 18 hours at $245.
Across the 6-12 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $4,500 median is roughly $500 a month of elapsed time.
A third ordering: by implied hours Montana is 19th of 49 at 18 hours, 8 places above its cost rank of 27th on cost — more work behind the same immigration money.
46% up the $2,700–$7,200 band sits the $4,750 table midpoint, buying 19 hours at $245 against the 18 the local immigration median implies — 1 hour apart.
| Measure | Montana | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,500 | 27th |
| Hourly median | $245 | 34th |
| Implied hours | 18 | 19th |
| Simple median | $1,800 | 32nd |
| Complex median | $9,300 | 37th |
$245 an hour puts Montana between Missouri ($245) and Tennessee ($245) — not the immigration cost pairing.
5 other states record exactly $245 — Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri among them — so rate is a coarse instrument in this immigration table.
$4,500 buys 23 hours at $200, 18 at $245, 15 at $310.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | Iowa | $245 |
| 33 | Missouri | $245 |
| 34 | Montana | $245 |
| 35 | Tennessee | $245 |
| 36 | Kansas | $230 |
Ranked tier by tier, Montana slides 5 places downward: 32nd at the simple tier, 27th at moderate, 37th at complex. Its headline moderate position sits between the two extremes rather than summarising them.
$1,800 is 32nd of 49 on a straightforward immigration, under Missouri ($1,800) and over Nevada ($1,800), $100 under the $1,900 tier midpoint.
$9,300 is 37th of 49 once contested, between Missouri ($9,350) and Iowa ($9,200), $1,450 off the $10,750 tier midpoint.
The three bands are continuous in Montana: the simple tier reaches $2,700 where the moderate tier starts at $2,700, and the moderate tier reaches $7,200 where the complex tier starts at $6,800. A single quoted figure can therefore belong to two different tiers, and the tier label — not the number — is what identifies which.
| Tier | Montana | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,800 | 32nd | $1,900 | 9 |
| moderate | $4,500 | 27th | $4,750 | 18 |
| complex | $9,300 | 37th | $10,750 | 30 |
$1,800 drops Montana to 32nd of 49 on straightforward matters, 5 below its moderate position and $100 (5%) under the $1,900 tier midpoint.
9 implied hours at $200: 50% of the moderate tier's 18, over 3-6 months.
Missouri ($1,800) and Nevada ($1,800) bracket it — a $0 window.
8 states record a simple-tier median within three percent of $1,800, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
$9,300 drops Montana to 37th of 49 on contested matters, 10 below its moderate position and $1,450 (13%) under the $10,750 tier midpoint.
30 implied hours at $310: 167% of the moderate tier's 18, over 12-24+ months.
Missouri ($9,350) and Iowa ($9,200) bracket it — a $150 window.
7 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $9,300, denser than the 5 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Kansas | $1,800 |
| 31 | Missouri | $1,800 |
| 32 | Montana | $1,800 |
| 33 | Nevada | $1,800 |
| 34 | Nebraska | $1,750 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Mississippi | $9,350 |
| 36 | Missouri | $9,350 |
| 37 | Montana | $9,300 |
| 38 | Iowa | $9,200 |
| 39 | Louisiana | $9,150 |
In Montana a immigration is 4th of 8 at $4,500, between DUI / DWI and Personal Injury. At 53% of Criminal Defense ($8,550).
The state does not rank uniformly. Montana is 27th of 49 for Immigration but 42nd for Divorce, a 15-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 27th on immigration says little about what the other lines cost.
Montana is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, DUI / DWI runs 4% below its own midpoint while Personal Injury runs 19% below its own midpoint — a 15-point spread between the extremes.
The largest tracked median in Montana is 5x the smallest, effectively the 5.1x that the typical state records: the internal spread is ordinary even where the levels are not.
0 of 5 matter types rank Montana in the upper third, 2 in the lower, 3 between; immigration is 27th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 46th percentile of the 49 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,050 | $8,550 | $26,200 | 32 | 38th | −16% | North Carolina |
| Divorce | $2,750 | $7,350 | $20,350 | 28 | 42nd | −14% | Tennessee |
| DUI / DWI | $2,800 | $7,150 | $13,700 | 29 | 30th | −4% | Florida |
| Immigration | $1,800 | $4,500 | $9,300 | 18 | 27th | −5% | Tennessee |
| Personal Injury | $1,200 | $4,200 | $13,000 | — | — | −19% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,300 | $3,350 | $4,500 | 15 | — | −7% | — |
| Real Estate Closing | $800 | $1,950 | $3,600 | 9 | 30th | −12% | Florida |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $500 | $1,700 | $5,600 | 7 | — | −18% | — |
Simple tier. $1,800 ÷ $200 = about 9 hours, spread over 3-6 months at roughly $400 a month. The $2,700 step to the moderate tier is 9 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,500 to $9,300 is a $4,800 step, mostly work: 12 more hours at $245 is $2,940, while moving to $310 across 30 hours adds $1,950. Work carries 60%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Idaho ($4,450) lands $50 under Montana; from Tennessee ($4,700), $200 over; from the $4,750 table midpoint, $250 out.
Both ends, in time. $2,700 is 11 hours at $245; $7,200 is 29. 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 Montana's own recorded figures, $9,300 buys 5.2 matters at the $1,800 simple median — or, counted in time, 30 implied hours against 9, a factor of 3.3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Montanacourt'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.