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 South Carolina, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a immigration in South Carolina costs on average $4,000, typically $2,400-$6,400 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $160 to $300 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 | $750 | $1,500 | $2,300 | 3-6 months |
| Moderate | $2,400 | $4,000 | $6,400 | 6-12 months |
| Complex | $6,000 | $8,250 | $11,200 | 12-24+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$160 – $300/ hour
Median: $220/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 South Carolina. The recorded median total is $4,000, with reported quotes clustering between $2,400 and $6,400. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,075–$2,740, which leaves roughly $1,260–$2,925 of the South Carolina 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 $4,000, the median immigration cost in South Carolina runs 19% below the $4,938 national average across all 50 states and DC.
South Carolina carries 3 rows — simple, $750–$2,300 at $120–$240/hr over 3-6 months; moderate, $2,400–$6,400 at $160–$300/hr over 6-12 months; complex, $6,000–$11,200 at $200–$360/hr over 12-24+ months — on 4 shared citations. Those figures place it in the lower quarter of the table.
$4,000 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,600 above the $2,400 floor, $2,400 under the $6,400 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 49.
Sorted by median cost, South Carolina is 41st of 49 for a immigration, placing it in the lowest-cost quarter of the table: $750 and 16% below the $4,750 midpoint, with 8 states recording a lower median still.
Arkansas ($4,000) and South Dakota ($3,950) bracket South Carolina inside a $50 window — narrow enough that 41st is close to arbitrary.
5 tracked states — Mississippi, Nebraska, Arkansas, South Dakota among them — record a median within three percent of South Carolina's $4,000. The figure sits in the densest part of the immigration distribution, where a rank change of several rows costs only a few hundred dollars.
Rate and total sit 2 places apart — 43rd of 49 at $220 an hour against 41st on the immigration total — which is close enough to read as the same signal.
| Rank | State | Median | Against South Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | North Carolina | $4,300 | +$300 |
| 36 | Indiana | $4,150 | +$150 |
| 37 | Iowa | $4,150 | +$150 |
| 38 | Mississippi | $4,050 | +$50 |
| 39 | Nebraska | $4,050 | +$50 |
| 40 | Arkansas | $4,000 | −$0 |
| 41 | South Carolina | $4,000 | — |
| 42 | South Dakota | $3,950 | −$50 |
| 43 | West Virginia | $3,950 | −$50 |
| 44 | Kansas | $3,800 | −$200 |
| 45 | New Mexico | $3,650 | −$350 |
| 46 | Louisiana | $3,600 | −$400 |
| 47 | Oklahoma | $3,550 | −$450 |
Within ten percent of the South Carolina figure there are 11 states above and only 5 below. $0 up or $50 down moves South Carolina a row, which means the ranking has far more room to improve than to slip: the immigration field is dense overhead and sparse underneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Arkansas and adding $150 to the $4,000 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under South Dakota, West Virginia, Kansas, New Mexico, Louisiana: $400.
$3,150 short of Hawaii ($7,150), $650 clear of Kentucky ($3,350).
At $220 an hour, the $4,000 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 South Carolina 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 South Carolina, but the implied workload only rises 3.6x — 8 hours at $180 becomes 29 hours at $280 — meaning the senior-rate premium of 1.56x carries an unusually large share of the increase.
The South Carolina moderate band spans $2,400 to $6,400 — $4,000 — which is $750 narrower than the peer-median band of $4,750, so quoted immigration figures cluster more tightly here than in most tracked states. End to end that is 18 hours at $220.
Across the 6-12 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $4,000 median is roughly $444 a month of elapsed time.
A third ordering: by implied hours South Carolina is 23rd of 49 at 18 hours, 18 places above its cost rank of 41st on cost — more work behind the same immigration money.
59% up the $2,400–$6,400 band sits the $4,750 table midpoint, buying 22 hours at $220 against the 18 the local immigration median implies — 4 hours apart.
| Measure | South Carolina | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,000 | 41st |
| Hourly median | $220 | 43rd |
| Implied hours | 18 | 23rd |
| Simple median | $1,500 | 44th |
| Complex median | $8,250 | 46th |
$220 an hour puts South Carolina between New Mexico ($220) and South Dakota ($220) — not the immigration cost pairing.
New Mexico, South Dakota record the same $220: rate cannot separate them, totals do.
$4,000 buys 22 hours at $180, 18 at $220, 14 at $280.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 41 | West Virginia | $230 |
| 42 | New Mexico | $220 |
| 43 | South Carolina | $220 |
| 44 | South Dakota | $220 |
| 45 | Louisiana | $215 |
The ranking barely moves across tiers — 44th at the simple tier, 41st at moderate, 46th at complex of 49 — so South Carolina keeps roughly the same relative position whether the immigration is straightforward or contested.
$1,500 is 44th of 49 on a straightforward immigration, under Louisiana ($1,500) and over West Virginia ($1,500), $400 under the $1,900 tier midpoint.
$8,250 is 46th of 49 once contested, between Arkansas ($8,600) and South Dakota ($8,100), $2,500 off the $10,750 tier midpoint.
$100 separates the simple ceiling of $2,300 from the moderate floor of $2,400, so the first escalation is a clean break, while the moderate and complex bands overlap from $6,000 upward. The expensive end of a routine immigration and the cheap end of a contested one are the same money in South Carolina.
| Tier | South Carolina | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,500 | 44th | $1,900 | 8 |
| moderate | $4,000 | 41st | $4,750 | 18 |
| complex | $8,250 | 46th | $10,750 | 29 |
$1,500 drops South Carolina to 44th of 49 on straightforward matters, 3 below its moderate position and $400 (21%) under the $1,900 tier midpoint.
8 implied hours at $180: 44% of the moderate tier's 18, over 3-6 months.
Louisiana ($1,500) and West Virginia ($1,500) bracket it — a $0 window.
2 states sit within three percent of the $1,500 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
$8,250 drops South Carolina to 46th of 49 on contested matters, 5 below its moderate position and $2,500 (23%) under the $10,750 tier midpoint.
29 implied hours at $280: 161% of the moderate tier's 18, over 12-24+ months.
Arkansas ($8,600) and South Dakota ($8,100) bracket it — a $500 window.
1 states sit within three percent of the $8,250 here, against 5 at the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | Alabama | $1,550 |
| 43 | Louisiana | $1,500 |
| 44 | South Carolina | $1,500 |
| 45 | West Virginia | $1,500 |
| 46 | Kentucky | $1,450 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | North Carolina | $8,750 |
| 45 | Arkansas | $8,600 |
| 46 | South Carolina | $8,250 |
| 47 | South Dakota | $8,100 |
| 48 | Oklahoma | $7,700 |
In South Carolina a immigration is 4th of 8 at $4,000, between DUI / DWI and Personal Injury. At 46% of Criminal Defense ($8,700).
The state does not rank uniformly. South Carolina is 35th of 49 for Criminal Defense but 51st for DUI / DWI, a 16-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 41st on immigration says little about what the other lines cost.
South Carolina is not equally priced in every practice area. Measured against each matter's own midpoint, Criminal Defense runs 15% below its own midpoint while Estate Planning / Probate runs 28% below its own midpoint — a 13-point spread between the extremes.
South Carolina's practice areas fan out more than most: its largest tracked median is 5.8x its smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state. Prices here are set matter by matter rather than by one statewide level.
All 7 tracked matter types place South Carolina in the lower third of their tables, the immigration figure included.
In percentile terms it sits at the 17th percentile of the 49 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,000 | $8,700 | $23,100 | 36 | 35th | −15% | Missouri |
| Divorce | $2,500 | $6,450 | $18,600 | 27 | 50th | −25% | Arkansas |
| DUI / DWI | $2,550 | $5,550 | $13,050 | 25 | 51st | −26% | Oklahoma |
| Immigration | $1,500 | $4,000 | $8,250 | 18 | 41st | −16% | Arkansas |
| Personal Injury | $1,200 | $3,850 | $12,200 | — | — | −26% | — |
| Bankruptcy | $1,100 | $3,050 | $4,250 | 15 | 36th | −15% | North Dakota |
| Real Estate Closing | $850 | $1,800 | $3,900 | 9 | 37th | −19% | North Carolina |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $450 | $1,500 | $4,550 | 7 | 44th | −28% | Oklahoma |
Simple tier. $1,500 ÷ $180 = about 8 hours, spread over 3-6 months at roughly $333 a month. The $2,500 step to the moderate tier is 10 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,000 to $8,250 is a $4,250 step weighted toward price: 11 more hours at $220 is $2,420, but $280 across 29 hours adds $1,740 — 42% of it.
Borrowing the wrong row. South Dakota ($3,950) is $50 light, Arkansas ($4,000) is $0 heavy — but the $4,750 table midpoint is out by $750, 15x the neighbour error.
Both ends, in time. $2,400 is 11 hours at $220; $6,400 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 South Carolina's own recorded figures, $8,250 buys 5.5 matters at the $1,500 simple median — or, counted in time, 29 implied hours against 8, a factor of 3.6 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the South Carolinacourt'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.