IN THIS GUIDE · Household arithmetic under the official terms, and the direction the money travels
Start with the GOLD CARD eligibility and application overview
A processing fee and a gift, both flowing toward the U.S. government
The official material describes two separate payments. First, a nonrefundable processing fee of US$15,000 per person, payable to begin the process and not returned whatever the outcome. Second, after successful vetting, a gift of US$1,000,000 where an individual applies, or US$2,000,000 where a corporate sponsor funds the application for an employee. The gift is made by the applicant to the U.S. government. It is worth stating the obvious because it is regularly reported the other way round: this is not money the government gives to anybody. It buys no equity, produces no income, is not recoverable, and creates no interest in any business or asset.
Which members of a household are inside the framework and which are not
Each accompanying spouse or unmarried child under twenty-one adds a further processing fee and a further gift of US$1,000,000 on the published terms, including where a corporate sponsor is involved. Applied to Bertrand's family, his wife and his nineteen-year-old daughter are within the definition, so three sets of fees and three gifts arise. The twenty-two-year-old son is outside it altogether and would need a route of his own, whether that is a student status, an employment category for which he independently qualifies, or something else. The daughter's age is a live constraint rather than a fixed fact: if she turns twenty-one during the process, the household's position changes, so her birthday belongs on the same page as the payment schedule.
It runs through immigrant categories that already exist
The Gold Card is not a new visa classification standing on its own. The official framework describes successful applicants proceeding through the existing employment-based first and second preference classifications, which means the ordinary requirements of those categories, admissibility, and visa availability continue to apply. Two consequences follow that a fee schedule does not show. Paying does not create eligibility for a category an applicant does not otherwise fit, and it cannot manufacture an immigrant visa number where the category is oversubscribed. Anyone assessing this route should therefore begin at the far end, by asking whether the underlying classification is available to them at all, rather than at the payment.
Why it is not the investor route at a different price
The two are described interchangeably in a great deal of commentary, and they have almost nothing in common. Investor capital under EB-5 is invested in a commercial enterprise, must remain exposed to loss, must create at least ten qualifying full-time jobs, and in principle can be returned when the venture eventually permits. A Gold Card gift is a transfer to the U.S. government with no enterprise, no jobs requirement, no risk in the commercial sense and no prospect of return. Conflating them leads families to expect an asset at the end of it. Because the program is recent, its official terms and procedures should be re-verified on the government source immediately before any money moves, and a licensed United States immigration attorney should confirm the position for the specific household.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.