Found this material at Circle ID site which was posted by John Levine(original posting).

Thought i should share it.

After a short research,

Found this posting at ICANN’s site.

Pay as you proceed through the evaluation process?

1st Stage.
1a) provide an INITIAL APPLICATION FEE ($<5000)
1b) application acceptance and initial evaluation
1c) change the initial evaluation on the Business and Technical portions by limiting these to critical elements only with intense evaluation delayed to occur should the application move to stage.2 below).
1d) Post IE Results and allow for objections etc.
1e) Deal with objections

2nd Stage, - you’ve made it through the objections stage.
2a) Full Evaluation, Comparative analysis etc.
2b) An “APPLICATION ACCEPTANCE FEE” applies.
2c) ICANN performs a rigourous look at the ability to proceed including full business and technical evaluation, comparative evaluations for auction etc…
2d) Application acceptance or denial.

3rd Stage….
3a) root zone acceptance
3b) any applicable fees.

Found from here

Now wouldn’t that benefit the applicants more without paying a bomb?