Start with the GOLD CARD eligibility and application overview
Count each principal and included family member
The published corporate principal gift is US$2 million per employee after successful vetting and official instructions, plus US$15,000 nonrefundable processing per person. An individual principal’s gift is US$1 million. Every included eligible spouse or child adds US$1 million and US$15,000, including corporate cases. Children generally must be unmarried and under 21, with any CSPA protection assessed individually. The application file should connect each family relationship and age record to the person for whom the payment is proposed. A corporate employer’s internal budget or reimbursement rule does not establish that a child is eligible to be included. Hypothetical example: A precision railway-fastening researcher expects an adult child to be added after the company approves a group budget. The family must first decide whether the child meets the applicable derivative rule before treating an internal allocation as an available benefit.
Review continuing corporate terms without promising interchangeability
The official site states a 1% annual maintenance fee and 5% transfer fee, with transfer including a new DHS background check and subject to the actual programme conditions. Do not assume a pending employee can simply be exchanged by changing a name. EB-1/EB-2 eligibility, admissibility and visa availability remain conditions for each applicant; a gift is not EB-5 capital, equity or guaranteed repayment. The first review should preserve the official instructions, receipt and identity of the payer, then keep them separate from employment, investment or immigration-petition records. A consultant invoice, corporate expense entry or private transfer is not the gift payment merely because it concerns the programme. The applicant should decide whether the official recipient and amount are verified before any money is sent.
What the program is, in the government's own terms
Because the programme runs through existing employment-based classifications rather than a new one, the ordinary requirements of the classification used still apply, as do the ordinary grounds of inadmissibility. The official description ties the outcome to permanent residence through an existing employment-based category as determined by the authorities. The program's terms, fees and procedures may be adjusted, and the operative version is whatever the official government source says at the moment of the decision. Determine whether the proposed payment purchases shares, property or a loan claim, pays an adviser or makes the instructed government gift. The official site describes additional visa-related fees and required medical-examination payment instructions from the State Department. Read the official materials for the immigrant-category determination and keep every threshold question visible: the EB-1 or EB-2 basis, admissibility and visa availability. Create a payment-control sheet that identifies the official page, the receiving government account, the applicant named on the instruction, and the date it was checked. You upload the supporting documents through the official portal; USCIS conducts the vetting and issues the instructions; the qualifying gift is a payment you make to the U.S. government when instructed, not something conferred on you.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.