No universal replacement-cost threshold applies. The actual knowledge, employment and assignment conditions require evidence.
Use supported business context
A genuine training cost can be relevant context without proving the classification. Do not invent an impossible-replacement claim.
Evidencing specialized knowledge means someone senior spends days pulling together internal documentation, development history, training materials and a candid assessment of what the rest of the team can and cannot do. Specialized-knowledge petitions attract requests for evidence more often than most categories, so a thorough initial filing prepared by a licensed U.S. immigration attorney is cheaper than a thin one followed by a response. Decide which records would prove that knowledge even if the article disappeared: internal training, uncommon assignments, implementation history, and comparisons with ordinary staff may be more probative. Ask counsel which of the four elements the quoted assessment actually covers, because the corporate analysis, the chronology, the knowledge claim and any offsite placement question are separable pieces of work and a fee quoted for the case may assume the simplest version of each.