Under international law, you may claim the filing date of any U. S. patent application, in foreign applications on the same invention, if they are filed within one year of the U.S. application. You may extend this 12-month privilege to 30 months, with a PCT application. The PCT is examined and may be amended, but it does not issue into a patent grant. However, follow-on applications into selected countries or regions may claim the priority date established by the PCT or earlier application. Therefore, the PCT procedure allows one to wait up to 30 months from the date of first application before filing foreign applications without lose of priority. The PCT may be a first filing including designation of U.S. Preparation fee: $1,500 (prior U.S. application)                         $3,500 (w/o prior U.S. Application)         Filing fees: $1,068                  plus $104 per country/region selected (5 max.)