IN THIS GUIDE · Whether a company can pay the gift, and in what order the steps happen
Start with the GOLD CARD eligibility and application overview
Step one: establish which framework is being used, and read it directly
The individual and corporate-sponsored routes are not variations of one process; they carry different published amounts and, on the corporate side, continuing obligations. Lars should read the official program page and FAQ himself, note the date he read them, and print or save what it said. The Gold Card is not a conventional visa category with its own statutory chapter, and successful applicants proceed through EB-1 or EB-2 subject to category eligibility, admissibility and visa availability. An intermediary's summary, however confident, is not the framework, and terms published today may not be the terms in force when a payment is made.
Step two: understand the payment stages before committing to either route
The published structure separates a nonrefundable DHS processing fee from a gift paid after successful vetting. Currently published figures are US$15,000 nonrefundable processing per person, then, after successful vetting, a principal gift of US$1 million for an individual or US$2 million per corporate-sponsored employee. Each eligible joining spouse or unmarried child under twenty-one adds US$15,000 and US$1 million, including in corporate cases. The gift is a gift to the U.S. government. It is not an investment, it is not placed in a business, it creates no jobs to be proven and it produces no return of any kind.
Step three: on the corporate route, price the obligations that continue
The published corporate terms describe a one percent annual maintenance charge and a five percent transfer fee, the transfer including a new DHS background check. Those are ongoing commitments of the sponsoring company rather than one-time costs, and they belong in the decision before the first payment, not after it. Lars should also consider what happens to a corporate sponsorship if he later sells the repair business or restructures it. Reuse of a prior corporate principal gift for a replacement employee is not automatic approval of that person under the published process, so the company should not treat the sponsorship as an asset it can freely reassign.
Step four: re-verify, then take advice, then pay
Nothing here should be acted on from a saved page. Before any transfer, Lars should return to the official source, confirm the current amounts and terms for the route he has chosen, and have a licensed U.S. immigration attorney review his own admissibility and category eligibility. Additional State Department and medical costs may apply. Payment does not itself grant status, work authorization or residence, and no fee is a substitute for the eligibility and admissibility questions that the underlying immigrant categories still ask. Keep a dated record of the terms relied on at each stage, because the published framework can change between decision and payment.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.