No. The Gold Card gift is to the U.S. government under its official framework, not commercial EB-5 capital promising return. The September 7, 2026 official processing fee is US$15,000 per person and nonrefundable; the principal gift is US$1,000,000 individually or US$2,000,000 per corporate-sponsored employee. Family and continuing corporate obligations are additional.
Separate the actual transactions
Identify official gifts, processing fees and private employment conditions. A business payment does not merge the two immigration frameworks.
EB-5 money is invested in a business, remains at risk for the legally applicable sustainment period and must satisfy the ten-job requirement; any eventual return depends on the project documents and cannot be guaranteed. Corporate terms add 1% annual maintenance and a 5% transfer charge with a new background check; transferring sponsorship does not automatically approve a replacement employee. Where a framework is recent and its procedures are still settling, taking the time to read the official terms and obtain independent advice costs nothing of value. Anyone comparing this framework with an investment category should compare total outlay and recoverability, not only the headline figure, because a gift and an investment are not equivalent expenditures.