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 Tennessee, including attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses.
As of June 29, 2026, a immigration in Tennessee costs on average $4,700, typically $2,800-$7,500 for a moderate-complexity case, based on sourced attorney-fee and court-cost data. Typical attorney rates run $175 to $335 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 | $800 | $1,600 | $2,400 | 3-6 months |
| Moderate | $2,800 | $4,700 | $7,500 | 6-12 months |
| Complex | $7,750 | $10,650 | $14,500 | 12-24+ months |
Last verified: June 2026
$175 – $335/ 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 Tennessee. The recorded median total is $4,700, with reported quotes clustering between $2,800 and $7,500. Each statutory line below is sized against that median.
Added together the itemised lines come to $1,075–$2,740, which leaves roughly $1,960–$3,625 of the Tennessee 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 $4,700, the median immigration cost in Tennessee runs 5% below the $4,938 national average across all 50 states and DC.
Tennessee carries 3 rows — simple, $800–$2,400 at $135–$265/hr over 3-6 months; moderate, $2,800–$7,500 at $175–$335/hr over 6-12 months; complex, $7,750–$14,500 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.
$4,700 is a median, not the middle of the band — $1,900 above the $2,800 floor, $2,800 under the $7,500 ceiling. Every rank below is out of 49.
Tennessee occupies the 26th row of 49 for a immigration. Its $4,700 median trails the $4,750 table midpoint by $50, which is 1% — close enough that a single firm's quote can straddle both figures.
Michigan is only $50 above Tennessee at $4,750, but the drop to Montana at $4,500 is $200 — the state sits at the bottom edge of its group, with clear air beneath it.
Arizona, Michigan record medians within three percent of Tennessee's $4,700. A immigration quote anywhere in that group is describing effectively the same market.
Hourly rate does not explain this state's position. At $245 an hour Tennessee is only 35th of 49 on rate, yet 26th on total immigration cost — the totals reflect billed hours accumulating, not an unusually high rate.
| Rank | State | Median | Against Tennessee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Oregon | $5,300 | +$600 |
| 21 | Virginia | $5,250 | +$550 |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | $5,050 | +$350 |
| 23 | Wisconsin | $4,850 | +$150 |
| 24 | Arizona | $4,750 | +$50 |
| 25 | Michigan | $4,750 | +$50 |
| 26 | Tennessee | $4,700 | — |
| 27 | Montana | $4,500 | −$200 |
| 28 | Idaho | $4,450 | −$250 |
| 29 | Georgia | $4,400 | −$300 |
| 30 | Missouri | $4,400 | −$300 |
| 31 | Ohio | $4,400 | −$300 |
| 32 | Wyoming | $4,400 | −$300 |
The rows within ten percent are lopsided: 9 below Tennessee against 4 above. $50 up or $200 down moves Tennessee a row, so a downward revision would cost the state far more places than an equivalent upward one would gain — the 26th position is propped up by a thin immigration field above it and a crowded one beneath.
Climbing five places would mean passing Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan and adding $550 to the $4,700 recorded here.
Five places down means passing under Montana, Idaho, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio: $300.
$2,450 short of Hawaii ($7,150), $1,350 clear of Kentucky ($3,350).
At $245 an hour, the $4,700 median represents about 19 hours of attorney time — a matter measured in days of work, not weeks. The peer median is 18 hours, so 1 more hours of work sit behind the Tennessee figure than behind the typical state's.
Tennessee records a 6.7x gap between its simple and complex immigration medians. Decomposed, that is 4.3x more billed time and 1.55x a higher rate: 8 hours at $200 becomes 34 hours at $310.
From $2,800 to $7,500 the moderate band is $4,700 wide, close to the $4,750 peer median. End to end that is 19 hours at $245.
Across the 6-12 months the sources record for a moderate matter, the $4,700 median is roughly $522 a month of elapsed time.
A third ordering: by implied hours Tennessee is 12th of 49 at 19 hours, 14 places above its cost rank of 26th on cost — more work behind the same immigration money.
41% up the $2,800–$7,500 band sits the $4,750 table midpoint, buying 19 hours at $245 against the 19 the local immigration median implies — 0 hours apart.
| Measure | Tennessee | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate median | $4,700 | 26th |
| Hourly median | $245 | 35th |
| Implied hours | 19 | 12th |
| Simple median | $1,600 | 41st |
| Complex median | $10,650 | 27th |
$245 an hour puts Tennessee between Montana ($245) and Kansas ($230) — 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.
$4,700 buys 24 hours at $200, 19 at $245, 15 at $310.
| Rank | State | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | Missouri | $245 |
| 34 | Montana | $245 |
| 35 | Tennessee | $245 |
| 36 | Kansas | $230 |
| 37 | Mississippi | $230 |
Rank is not stable across the tiers, and the direction matters. Tennessee runs 41st at the simple tier, 26th at moderate, 27th at complex of 49 — it climbs 14 places as the matter gets harder. Straightforward immigration work is recorded at ordinary prices here; contested work is not.
$1,600 is 41st of 49 on a straightforward immigration, under Indiana ($1,600) and over Alabama ($1,550), $300 under the $1,900 tier midpoint.
$10,650 is 27th of 49 once contested, between Utah ($10,700) and Wisconsin ($10,550), $100 off the $10,750 tier midpoint.
Neither pair of adjacent bands touches: $400 of clear space between the simple and moderate tiers, and $250 between the moderate and complex tiers. Every recorded immigration figure in Tennessee maps to exactly one tier, which makes the tier label unusually informative here.
| Tier | Tennessee | Rank | Tier midpoint | Implied hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | $1,600 | 41st | $1,900 | 8 |
| moderate | $4,700 | 26th | $4,750 | 19 |
| complex | $10,650 | 27th | $10,750 | 34 |
$1,600 drops Tennessee to 41st of 49 on straightforward matters, 15 below its moderate position and $300 (16%) under the $1,900 tier midpoint.
8 implied hours at $200: 42% of the moderate tier's 19, over 3-6 months.
Indiana ($1,600) and Alabama ($1,550) bracket it — a $50 window.
2 states sit within three percent of the $1,600 here, against 2 at the moderate row.
$10,650 drops Tennessee to 27th of 49 on contested matters, 1 below its moderate position and $100 (1%) under the $10,750 tier midpoint.
34 implied hours at $310: 179% of the moderate tier's 19, over 12-24+ months.
Utah ($10,700) and Wisconsin ($10,550) bracket it — a $150 window.
6 states record a complex-tier median within three percent of $10,650, denser than the 2 around the moderate row.
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | Idaho | $1,600 |
| 40 | Indiana | $1,600 |
| 41 | Tennessee | $1,600 |
| 42 | Alabama | $1,550 |
| 43 | Louisiana | $1,500 |
| Rank | State | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | Wyoming | $10,750 |
| 26 | Utah | $10,700 |
| 27 | Tennessee | $10,650 |
| 28 | Wisconsin | $10,550 |
| 29 | Nevada | $10,350 |
In Tennessee a immigration is 4th of 8 at $4,700, between DUI / DWI and Personal Injury. At 55% of Criminal Defense ($8,500).
The state does not rank uniformly. Tennessee is 25th of 49 for Personal Injury but 41st for Divorce, a 16-place spread across the matter types tracked here, so its 26th on immigration says little about what the other lines cost.
The spread across practice areas is wide. Immigration runs 1% below its own midpoint, while Personal Injury runs 22% below its own midpoint — 21 percentage points apart. A single "Tennessee is expensive" or "Tennessee is inexpensive" claim would be wrong for at least one of the matter types tracked here.
The practice areas sit unusually close together in Tennessee — the largest tracked median is 4.6x the smallest, against 5.1x for the typical state — so one figure travels further across matter types here than it would elsewhere.
0 of 8 matter types rank Tennessee in the upper third, 4 in the lower, 4 between; immigration is 26th.
In percentile terms it sits at the 48th percentile of the 49 tracked states.
| Matter | Simple | Moderate | Complex | Hours | Rank | vs mid | Above |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Defense | $3,150 | $8,500 | $26,900 | 32 | 40th | −17% | North Dakota |
| Divorce | $2,800 | $7,400 | $18,550 | 28 | 41st | −13% | Indiana |
| DUI / DWI | $3,000 | $6,550 | $16,350 | 27 | 35th | −12% | Indiana |
| Immigration | $1,600 | $4,700 | $10,650 | 19 | 26th | −1% | Michigan |
| Personal Injury | $1,200 | $4,050 | $12,500 | — | 25th | −22% | North Dakota |
| Bankruptcy | $1,250 | $2,950 | $4,100 | 13 | 38th | −18% | Wyoming |
| Real Estate Closing | $900 | $2,100 | $4,150 | 10 | 27th | −6% | Wyoming |
| Estate Planning / Probate | $500 | $1,850 | $5,400 | 8 | 33rd | −11% | Michigan |
Simple tier. $1,600 ÷ $200 = about 8 hours, spread over 3-6 months at roughly $356 a month. The $3,100 step to the moderate tier is 11 more hours at that rate.
Work against price. $4,700 to $10,650 is a $5,950 step, mostly work: 15 more hours at $245 is $3,675, while moving to $310 across 34 hours adds $2,210. Work carries 62%.
Borrowing the wrong row. Budgeting from Montana ($4,500) lands $200 under Tennessee; from Michigan ($4,750), $50 over; from the $4,750 table midpoint, $50 out.
Both ends, in time. $2,800 is 11 hours at $245; $7,500 is 31. 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 Tennessee's own recorded figures, $10,650 buys 6.7 matters at the $1,600 simple median — or, counted in time, 34 implied hours against 8, a factor of 4.3 — the two ratios differing because the rate rises with the tier.
Verified June 2026. Filing fees change on the Tennesseecourt'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.