IN THIS GUIDE · Treat the Gold Card as a gift with conditions, and price every person separately
Start with the GOLD CARD eligibility and application overview
A gift is not an investment and does not come back
EB-5 capital is placed at risk in a business and may be returned if the business succeeds. A Gold Card gift is a transfer to the U.S. government with no return, no interest and no job-creation test. The two should never be added together in one 'cost of residence' line, because they have different tax treatment, different refund positions on refusal, and different evidence requirements. Ask a Canadian and a U.S. tax adviser how a gift of that size is treated before assuming it is simply a fee. Hypothetical example: a retired printing-business owner considers borrowing against a home to make the payment. The first decision is not whether the amount is affordable in isolation, but whether the applicant can document the loan, collateral, repayment obligation and the lawful source of the lender's funds if asked. A transfer to the U.S. government is not transformed into recoverable capital because borrowed money funded it.
Paying does not skip eligibility or admissibility
The official process describes an application, a fee, vetting, and then the gift when instructed, followed by immigrant processing under EB-1 or EB-2. Criminal history, prior immigration violations, health grounds and the ordinary admissibility rules still apply. A person who would be inadmissible on other grounds is not made admissible by the gift, and visa-number availability in the immigrant category still governs when residence is granted.
Count each family member, and check the age line
The stated per-person gift and fee apply to a spouse and to each unmarried child under 21 who is included. A child of 22 is not a dependant and would need a separate application or a different route entirely. A household that budgets for the principal only and later adds a spouse would understate the required total.
Confirm the source of the gift with the same rigour as capital
Vetting includes the origin of the funds. A retired contractor's savings, farmland sale or business sale should be documented from origin to the account making the gift, with tax filings and sale agreements available. Treat the source-of-funds file as mandatory even if the official instructions at the time of application appear lighter than EB-5's, because a later question about the money is far harder to answer than an early one.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.