IN THIS GUIDE · Whether a company can sponsor its own owner, and what the corporate figure actually buys
Which way the money moves, and to whom
The official material describes a nonrefundable processing fee of fifteen thousand United States dollars per person, payable to begin the process, and then, after successful vetting, a gift made by the applicant to the U.S. government. For an individual that gift is one million United States dollars. The word gift is used deliberately and it runs in one direction only: the applicant gives the money to the government. Nothing is given by the government to the applicant, nothing is invested in an enterprise, no return is generated and the money is not returned if plans change. Describing it as a payment for status, or as an investment with a residency benefit attached, misstates it in both directions.
The corporate figure is a different arrangement, not a discount
Where a corporate sponsor makes the gift in respect of an employee, the published amount is two million United States dollars rather than one million. That is a higher figure, not a lower one, and it reflects a sponsorship by a company of a person it employs rather than a self-funded application. Ferruccio's accountant should therefore not expect a saving. Whether a closely held company can sponsor its own principal, and how the tax treatment of such a payment would work in either country, are questions for the official program terms and for the company's own tax advisers respectively. Neither should be assumed from the fact that the company has the cash.
Family members are additional, and each one is priced separately
Each accompanying spouse or unmarried child under twenty-one adds a further processing fee of fifteen thousand United States dollars and a further gift of one million United States dollars, and that additional amount applies in the corporate-sponsorship situation as well. A household of four is therefore contemplating four processing fees and a total gift figure that scales with the number of people, not a single family price. For a family considering this, the arithmetic should be done in full and in writing before anyone treats the headline figure as the cost of the move.
It runs through existing immigrant categories, so eligibility is still tested
Successful applicants proceed through existing employment-based classifications, and the published material refers to the first and second employment-based preference categories. That has a consequence people miss: the applicant must still be classifiable within one of them, must be admissible, and remains subject to visa availability in the relevant category. Paying the fee and making the gift does not substitute for those requirements. This is also the clearest reason never to describe the framework as a version of EB-5. The employment-creation category asks for capital at risk, ten jobs and a traced source of funds; this framework asks for vetting and a gift. Because the program is new and its terms have been revised, the official page and its questions and answers should be re-read immediately before any money moves, and a licensed U.S. immigration attorney should confirm both the current terms and Ferruccio's own eligibility.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.