Application and the nonrefundable fee come first, then vetting, then the gift, and then the underlying immigrant classification runs its ordinary course including visa availability. Because the program is still being implemented, every published term should be confirmed from the official source immediately before money moves.
Payment does not shorten the parts that are not about money
The stages that involve payment are the ones the applicant controls, and they are not the ones that determine how long the process takes. Vetting takes as long as it takes and can end the matter. Beyond it, because the route runs through the existing first and second employment-based preferences, visa availability for the applicant's country of chargeability is read from the Visa Bulletin like anyone else's, and no fee alters that.
Rashid should therefore build a plan with two kinds of dates: those he sets, such as when the company decides and when a payment is authorized, and those he does not, such as vetting and visa availability. The instruction that outranks all of this is procedural. Terms have changed during implementation, so the current official version must be checked on the day of payment, not on the day of the plan.