IN THIS GUIDE · Ask what the gift buys before a retiring dealership owner moves money for a Gold Card
Start with the GOLD CARD eligibility and application overview
Understand that a gift is not an investment
EB-5 capital is placed in a business, must create jobs and may in principle be returned when the business succeeds. The Gold Card gift is a contribution to the government with no commercial return and no expectation of repayment. For a dealership owner accustomed to weighing capital against yield, this is the essential difference: the question is not what the money earns but whether permanent residence is worth an irrevocable transfer of that amount. Do not let the two frameworks be compared as if they were competing prices for the same product. Put the comparison in writing: an EB-5 investor accepts commercial risk and job duties, while a Gold Card applicant makes a non-returnable government gift. Neither description should be softened into a promised financial product.
Confirm the current official terms yourself
The figures on this page were checked on September 7, 2026 against the official program page and FAQ. Terms of a new program can change, and the sequencing described there, meaning fee first, vetting second and gift only after successful vetting, matters for how the applicant plans liquidity. Before signing anything, read the official page again on the day, confirm whether the individual instructions still describe the same amounts, and ask what happens to the processing fee if vetting fails. Treat any third-party summary, including this one, as a prompt to verify rather than as the terms. Save the current instructions before paying and again when a material step occurs. An adviser may explain the program, but only the official terms establish the payment sequence and family treatment.
Check the immigrant-classification questions that the gift does not answer
Because the framework routes successful applicants through EB-1 or EB-2, the applicant still has to be admissible and a visa number must be available under the Visa Bulletin. A retired business owner should ask whether any past immigration history, criminal record or health matter could affect admissibility, and whether the classification used by the program would be current for a Canadian national. These are the same questions an ordinary employment-based immigrant would face, and they are assessed independently of the gift. Obtain an independent classification assessment before the processing fee. The separate employment-based classification question can be decisive even where the applicant's funds and background are straightforward.
Plan the family and the tax consequences together
Each joining spouse or child adds a separate fee and gift under the official terms, so a household of three is priced very differently from an individual. Children's eligibility depends on age and marital status, and the Child Status Protection Act rules should be checked for anyone near twenty-one. Permanent residence also has U.S. tax consequences for someone who intends to keep Canadian assets and spend only part of the year south of the border; that advice comes from a cross-border tax specialist, not from the immigration file, and it should be obtained before the gift, not after. Model the household as individual cases sharing a decision, not as one fee for a group. Age, marital status, admissibility and tax exposure can produce different results for each proposed family member.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.