IN THIS GUIDE · When a company offers to carry the payment, the immigration question and the employment contract come apart
Start with the GOLD CARD eligibility and application overview
What the framework actually consists of
As published, the sequence is fixed. An applicant pays a nonrefundable processing fee of US$15,000 per person. Vetting follows. Only after vetting does the payment stage arrive: a gift of US$1 million made by the applicant to the U.S. government, or US$2 million where a corporate sponsor is involved. The direction of that payment is the part most often garbled in conversation. Money moves from the applicant to the United States government; nothing is granted, gifted or paid by the government to anyone. The framework then operates through the existing employment-based first and second preference classifications rather than creating a new category of its own, and it should never be described as an investment or confused with EB-5, where capital goes into a business and must create jobs.
The corporate-sponsor variant raises questions the framework does not answer
Where a company is the sponsor, the higher figure applies, and a set of purely commercial questions immediately follows. Is the payment a benefit, and is it taxable to the employee in one or both countries? Is there a repayment obligation if the employee resigns within a defined period, and is such a clause enforceable where he will be living? What happens if the company is sold, or if the sponsoring entity ceases to exist, after the money has gone to the U.S. government and before the classification is granted? None of these has an immigration answer, and none of them should be settled by an assurance given in a meeting. They belong in writing, reviewed by counsel acting for the designer rather than for the company that is paying.
Family arithmetic, and the duty to check before money moves
The framework prices each person separately. An accompanying spouse or an unmarried child under twenty-one adds a further processing fee and a further gift of US$1 million for that person. A household of four is therefore a materially different proposition from an individual applicant, and the arithmetic should be done before anyone commits to anything. Because this is a newer framework, its published terms, amounts and procedures have been subject to change, and any figure quoted here or elsewhere must be re-verified against the official programme materials on the day a payment is contemplated. What the framework offers, if completed, is lawful permanent residence through an existing classification; it is not naturalisation, and citizenship remains a separate matter with its own residence and eligibility requirements.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.