Three nonrefundable processing fees of fifteen thousand United States dollars each, and then three gifts of one million United States dollars, one for the applicant and one for each accompanying spouse or eligible child. Every one of those amounts is paid out and none of it returns.
Multiply by people, not by applications
The headline figure describes one person, and families read it as describing a household. The fee attaches per person and the gift attaches per person, so a spouse and one eligible child roughly triple the outlay. Where a corporate sponsor makes the gift on behalf of an individual, the published amount is two million rather than one, which changes the calculation for an owner considering whether his company should pay.
Against those numbers sit costs that are small by comparison but real: immigration counsel, civil and police documents, medical examinations, translations and travel. Two cautions belong in any budget of this kind. Money paid before a decision is money at risk of a refusal, and the fee is not refunded if vetting is unsuccessful.
And figures published for a recent programme are subject to change, so the arithmetic should be rebuilt from the official source before anything is transferred.