The official United States government programme page and its published questions and answers, read directly and dated. Brokers’ summaries, trade-show handouts and news articles are not the terms, and a printed copy from last year is not evidence of what applies today.
Take the terms from the source that can change them
This is a comparatively new programme whose amounts and procedures are set by the government publishing them, which means secondary descriptions age quickly and quietly. The practical discipline is simple: open the official page, note the date on which it was read, and keep a copy of what it said that day alongside the file. Where a promoter’s figure differs from the official figure, the official figure governs and the discrepancy is itself useful information about the promoter.
Payment instructions deserve particular care, because they are the part fraudsters target. An instruction to pay through an intermediary’s account, a request to send funds to a third party who will handle it, or a promise that a payment can be reversed if the application fails should all stop the process. Verification takes minutes and should be repeated immediately before any transfer, not once at the beginning of the enquiry.