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MACKENZIE · GOLD CARD FIELD GUIDE

Does company sponsorship eliminate the employee household’s need to understand the charges?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Identify what the employer actually agrees to pay and the programme’s stated per-person amounts. A sponsorship label can leave important private cost allocations unresolved.

Separate payment responsibility from government terms

The corporate principal gift is US$2 million per sponsored employee, with separate processing and family charges. Maintenance and conditional transfer terms also apply. A private reimbursement promise does not make the processing fee refundable.

Ordinary ancillary costs — legal fees, document preparation, translations — sit outside the programme's charges and are payable whatever the outcome, so they belong in the budget separately. The single most important commercial question is therefore what happens to the money if an application is refused, withdrawn or abandoned, and the answer must come from the government's own published material rather than from an intermediary with an interest in the transaction. Everything else — translators, counsel, medical examinations, courier and travel — is private commercial spending negotiated with a provider, and none of it is an official programme charge however an invoice describes it. Payment to the U.S. government does not purchase an approval, and it is not capital placed into a business for return; the reader must still establish the appropriate employment-based basis, admissibility and an available visa number.