IN THIS GUIDE · Read the current official gift-based framework closely before making any financial commitment
Confirm whether the proposal is individual or corporate
The official FAQ, as checked September 7, 2026, describes a US$15,000 nonrefundable DHS processing fee and a US$1,000,000 gift for an individual applicant, and a separate corporate-sponsorship structure involving a US$2,000,000 gift per sponsored employee with its own additional terms, including the ability to redirect a prior gift toward sponsoring a new employee in some circumstances. Confirm the operative instructions for the actual proposal in front of you before any payment is made. Corporate terms include 1% annual maintenance and a 5% transfer charge with a new background check. Conditional reuse of a prior gift does not grant automatic approval to a replacement employee. The processing fee applies per person.
Build the family budget person by person
The FAQ states that each additional spouse or eligible unmarried child under 21 included in the application is subject to their own additional US$15,000 processing fee and US$1,000,000 gift. Hypothetical example: a St. Catharines household reads the individual headline figure and assumes it covers the whole family. Rebuild the calculation for every included person, and confirm both the applicable charges and each person's own eligibility rather than treating the principal applicant's number as the household total. The FAQ recommends initial inclusion of intended eligible joining family. The family charges also apply to corporate-sponsored cases.
Keep vetting and legal eligibility separate from the payment itself
The described process involves the initial application and processing fee, further USCIS instructions and supporting documents, a vetting stage, and the gift once instructed. The applicant must still be eligible for lawful permanent residence, admissible, and have an available visa. A financial commitment should never be treated as an automatic approval, a grant of citizenship, or a guaranteed processing date, and individual circumstances should be reviewed with counsel.
Compare the consequences with other residence routes honestly
A gift under this framework is a different kind of commitment from capital invested in an operating enterprise with potential commercial return and risk. Compare the legal evidence required, family treatment, financial exposure, and tax consequences of each route independently, and recheck the current official instructions before acting, since a government FAQ is a dated reference rather than a permanent guarantee that every term stays unchanged.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.