He may be able to obtain it, but keeping it is another matter: permanent residence requires actual residence in the United States, and a Canada-based life risks an abandonment finding regardless of the gift paid.
Eligibility to apply is not the same as the ability to keep the status
The Gold Card framework permits an individual applicant to pay the US$15,000 processing fee, undergo vetting and make the US$1,000,000 gift, after which the case is processed in EB-1 or EB-2 subject to eligibility, admissibility and visa availability. Nothing in those terms requires a prior move. But the result of a successful case is lawful permanent residence, and permanent residents are expected to make the United States their actual home.
A consultant who keeps his house, practice and family in Cantley and enters the United States for short working periods presents the pattern that leads to abandonment findings at the border or when applying for re-entry. The program does not waive that rule. Before paying a nonrefundable fee, he should decide whether the household will genuinely relocate; if not, a nonimmigrant category for the periods of U.S.
work is the honest fit. Hypothetical example: a music-publishing executive pays the program amount and assumes payment guarantees approval. It does not.
Executive Order 14351 directs that the gift be treated as evidence of specified EB-1 or EB-2 eligibility, but the first review should confirm the classification DHS may appropriately determine, admissibility, vetting, and visa availability. An individual may make the gift, or a corporation or similar entity may make the corporate gift on the person’s behalf. The gift is not an EB-5 investment or a new conventional visa category, and it cannot cure inadmissibility or the absence of an available visa.