The processing fee is paid and vetting takes place first. The gift to the U.S. government follows after vetting, and the immigrant classification is then processed through existing channels. Because the sequence and the timelines have been revised since launch, the current official description should be confirmed before planning around any of it.
Sequence matters because the payments are not reversible
Understanding the order protects an applicant from the two common mistakes: paying everything at the outset, and assuming that payment concludes the matter. Vetting sits before the gift, which means an applicant with an admissibility issue should raise it with counsel before the process starts rather than after the fee is spent. Processing then proceeds through existing employment-based immigrant channels, and the ordinary timelines and requirements of those channels apply.
For a household planning a move around a school year or the sale of a business, that last point is the important one, because a programme name does not create a separate queue with its own speed. Anyone building a calendar around this route should verify the current published steps directly, note the date of verification, and treat earlier descriptions, including this one, as historical.