Add the nonrefundable US$15,000 processing fee and the US$1,000,000 gift for every included person, then add visa fees, medical examinations, legal and tax advice, and relocation. The gift is not an investment and carries no promise of return or refund. A realistic total, rather than the headline figure, is what an exploratory consultation should leave you holding.
Ask what happens if it does not proceed
Test the plan against failure before testing it against success. Find out at which point money becomes unrecoverable, what the household would have spent if vetting does not conclude favourably, and whether any professional fees are staged. If an employer is involved, the corporate program's 1% annual maintenance charge and 5% transfer fee should be reviewed on current terms.
A household that can absorb the loss makes a different decision from one that cannot. Hypothetical example: a household models the total on the two headline figures and discovers later that professional fees, medical examinations, translations, travel and tax advice add a further substantial sum. A first review would build the model from the actual list of people and the actual list of steps, and would mark against each item whether it is refundable, recoverable, or spent.
It would also ask what the household would do if it stopped after the first payment, since that is the scenario the processing fee actually buys exposure to and the one least often planned for.